Chloe and Zoe met Phoebe for the first time about 6 hours after her arrival into the world. I love this photo of Zoe giggling next to her older sister:
Shortly after meeting Phoebe, Zoe turns to me and says, “Can she go back into your tummy?”
First meeting
January 24th, 2012Cookies and Cream
December 28th, 2011Oh, where to even start? It’s been way too long since I’ve written, and I have so much to say. First off, I want to welcome Phoebe to this blog. Our third Oe. She was born on December 12th, 2011, weighing 8 pounds and 1 ounce. I called that one. That’s right – a half hour before she came I told the doc that I thought she’d be exactly that weight. Joe and him both thought she’d come in at around seven-and-a-half. But that wasn’t the only thing I had predicted. I had half-guessed that she would arrive on the 12th of December, if not for the fact that that was the date that I was going to give the doctor if she really had to be induced. 12-12. For the engineer geek inside me, that seemed pretty cool. Besides, she’d be one on 12-12-12, which is even cooler. I have to say that Phoebe picked a good day to come. When my water broke, I joked to Joe that she’s smart: she waited until his whole family had arrived into town before coming. Clara (Joe’s sister) had wanted to see how I look whilst pregnant, and on the night of the 11th, she got to have a look. And sure enough, three hours later, my water broke while I was lying in bed.
A few other things about this delivery that was different from before:
- I got the epidural without knowing how dilated I was. This was a first. The nurse didn’t believe in “checking” me if she wasn’t going to do anything different. So I just went ahead and got it when I started feeling a little pain. Ladies: I have literally never felt much pain with any of these babies. When in doubt, just get the epidural. It’s the best.
- I didn’t need pitocin this time. Go figure. I guess that’s what happens when you don’t get checked.
- This labor – and the subsequent pushing – happened in the middle of the night. This was not ideal. I was TIRED. I just wanted to sleep. I would have prefer to have been pushing during the day. But hey, you can’t choose when your water breaks.
One of the most amazing things about the birth, though, was that Phoebe came out smelling like a bakery. I’m not kidding. She smelled like cookies, cream, and a twinge of celery. If you know me well, you know I have a beagle’s nose. I can smell the slightest scents (good and bad). She smelled amazing. My theory (and I am not a doctor, though I did take my fair share of Bio courses in college as a pre-med), is that my gestational diabetes created a very sweet environment inside for Phoebe. So when she came out, with all the gunk and fluid still on her, she smelled sweet. I almost didn’t want them to give her a bath. Here she is with all the gunk on her, right after she came out:
And even after they cleaned her up, she was still just as sweet.
Goodies from the ABC Kids Expo – part 1
October 8th, 2011There’s this French brand – Moulin Roty – which I stumbled upon back in Taipei a couple of years ago, and haven’t ever seen in the States since. To my surprise, they had a small booth at the ABC Kids Expo, where we (Orbit Baby) exhibited at a couple of weeks ago. The rep that worked the booth was one of the nicest people I met at the show, and let me buy a couple of their samples. This is one of those toys I bought where I thought to myself, “is this toy for me, or for the Oes?” It was so cute I couldn’t resist.
What you see above is play food from a “Friday market” (on right) and play food from a “Monday market” (on left) as in France you can get different food from the market depending on the day of the week. And in the background is a grocery store that stores up as a box when you’re done playing with it. I heart this toy, I think it’s the most adorable thing ever. But then again, I have a weakness for fake food for some reason. Zoe caught me flipping through the catalog the other night and said, “Mama, why are you looking at toys?!”
The other goodie I picked up were these cool plates with compartments that were NOT plastic. I had told Joe I wanted to get something that was glass or stainless, and this one brand – inno baby – which I had bought glass containers from before, started selling these stainless steel plates. Zoe needs to have all her foods separated from each other (ex: if the hummus touches her raspberry during breakfast, she needs to toss it from her plate), and she ends up using 4 or 5 plates and bowls during dinner which is a big pain in the butt. With this new plate, she seems pretty happy.
Zoe’s 3rd haircut
September 27th, 2011We’ve been trying to get Zoe to cut her hair for the last few months. She’s only had her hair cut twice before: once a couple of years ago, and once earlier in the summer before we went to Spain. We should have cut it more at that time, but we were nervous about it; because, she does kind of have great hair. But it was getting so long that when she leaned back while on the toilet, there were times I thought her hair would touch the toilet water (yuck). Her hair needed to get cut. Here she is back in June with her long hair:
So we’ve been talking to her about it over the last few months, convincing her why it’s a good idea to cut it: “it will make you a faster runner! you’ll be able to swim more easily! less soap in your eyes when you wash your hair! less itchiness! it will feel lighter!” She then agreed somewhere along the way that she would cut it in 4 weeks. Then it became 6 weeks, and then it was kind of just a hopeless plea on my part. When, one day, it dawned on me to use her birthday as a way to convince her. So, the week before her party, we talked about it and she agreed that she should get it cut before she turned four. Then, on the day before her birthday, she agreed to do it when I talked to her about it while she was having her snack. But then, within a span of five minutes, she changed her mind. We decided to do it anyway. With our babysitter Es’ lead (who has been going to beauty school and has learned to cut hair), we scrambled to get the scissors and have her sit in the backyard (so that we didn’t have hair all over the house). Zoe picked a low wicker lounger, and purposefully sat with her back glued to the back of the chair. Then she said she wanted a “bottle,” which she hasn’t asked for in about a year. A bottle of warm milk, to be precise. So I got that for her. After finally convincing her to sit on a stool, she then said that she wanted me to cut it, not Es. I am not a trained beautician; but alas, there is no time to waste when your child decides after four months that she will get her hair cut. The first cut didn’t go so well: I had wanted to save her hair, so we tied it up in a rubber band, and cut it at the band. Her hair was so thick it was like cutting a cucumber. Not exactly like cutting a piece of paper with a pair of scissors. We had agreed to cut four fingers worth, but when I stared at what I had cut, it was more like ten. It was hard because she was squirming, and because I was sweating and so nervous, I was pulling up on the ponytail instead of down, so cut it more at an angle. Oh goodness. Es and I looked at each other and I nearly cried; I gasped but we moved along: “so pretty Zoe! you’re doing great!”
So we went at it: Es grasping strands of hair between her second and third fingers, me cutting (and nearly cutting Es fingers: “so sorry!”) at the “line.” Zoe shifting and moving and us adjusting as best we could. After a good ten minutes, she was finally fine with me not cutting it anymore, and Es was able to take over and layer it so it didn’t look like Zoe cut it herself. Chloe then came out to the backyard with a shocked look on her face, “hey it’s shorter than mine! I thought she only wanted to cut it a little bit!” at which point I shushed her and encouraged her to tell Zoe how great it looked. The other thing we realized was that Zoe has wavy hair – it wasn’t obvious to me when her hair was long, but as we cut it, it was clear that her hair was wavy, and so looked even shorter than what we had intended.
Here is a before photo (taken about a week before her haircut):
And shortly after her haircut:
After the whole ordeal, the bottle of milk was tossed to the side, the tears were gone, and Zoe was admiring her new do in the mirror, twirling in circles and smiling at herself. And at night, while brushing her teeth, she said to Joe, “When I wake up tomorrow morning, is my hair still going to be short?”
Joe: “Yes, Zoe, it’s still going to be short.”
Zoe: “Oh good! When I wake up will I be four?”
Joe: “Yes, Zoe, you’re turning four tomorrow!”
Zoe: “Hehehehe…I’m gonna be four!”
I heart these days and cherish these moments.
Chloe’s 1st day
September 12th, 2011Chloe had been going to preschool for three years, but as people say, starting Kindergarten at a new school is still a pretty big deal. We tried to make it not a big deal at all, so that she wouldn’t be nervous, and in the end, she really did make an easy transition. Nonetheless, I wouldn’t feel right about not writing about it. Here she is on the first day, after the opening ceremony, trying not to smile at the camera:
It’s always the littlest things that surprise me with “firsts”, not the big ones like: “will she be happy?” “will she make friends?” “will she understand the teacher?” For example, another mom warned me to make sure things are easy to open, and I hadn’t really thought about that. So she had to practice opening her snack bag and thermos container for lunch; otherwise she might spend a good five minutes trying to open, give up, and go on the monkey bars instead. Or the fact that the toilet at the school wasn’t like the ones at home or at her preschool: the flush was one of those you use your foot on, the industrial kind that you have to push hard to make it work. Or that on rainy days, she would have to take off her boots, and it would take her a long time to zip it all the way up. Or, that she’d have to keep track of the time she was out at recess: there was no bell to tell her to run back to the classroom. It’s all part of growing up, and my heart aches when I think about a time in the future when she will be able to do everything herself, and she won’t want us around to help her anymore.
Natalie Portman with Orbit Baby
September 9th, 2011Natalie Portman is my favorite actress of all-time. I first fell in love with her when I saw her in The Professional over ten years ago. And today, she was photographed with the Orbit. My heart nearly stopped when I saw the photos. There’s even one of her un-docking the car seat from the stroller frame: http://www.popsugar.com/Natali
It’s my birthday and I can be crazy if I want to
September 8th, 2011I had to share this photo of Zoe going nuts decorating cupcakes for her classmates. Grandma made them, and Zoe had the honor of decorating them.
She was like a mad scientist pouring sprinkles on all the cupcakes, and designating which ones were for her friends, which ones were for the boys, etc.
Make-up Post: July 4th 2011
September 5th, 2011We had a fun July 4th with some friends and their neighborhood festivities. It was marked by the first time the Oes bought ice cream from the ice cream truck, which always brings back memories for me. I loved the ice cream truck when I was young – the whimsical music plus the huge assortment always made my day.
It was also marked by swimming in our friends’ neighborhood pool. We didn’t know the extent of all the festivities and didn’t think to bring swim suits, but fortunately we were able to borrow.
The highlight was the Penny Toss – the Oes had never seen anything like it before, and the stress of a hundred kids diving for money was too much for all of us to handle. Hence, the watching from the side.
And of course, no celebration would be complete without a cake pop after swimming.
Drawing Upside Down
September 5th, 2011At first, I thought Zoe was just drawing faces and people upside down because she thought it was fun. But over time, I’ve realized that that’s just what she does by default. She will draw all of her people upside down, and then when she’s done, she’ll take a look at it right side up. Joe thinks it has something to do with how your brain visualizes images upside down, but I don’t quite get it. In any case, i think it’s kind of interesting as Chloe didn’t go through anything similar.
For other items, like rainbows and houses, she does draw those right side up. It’s just the faces and people she always draws the other way around. So, she’ll actually need to draw a sad mouth in order to get a happy mouth when she turns it right-side up. It would hurt my brain if I had to do that, but she seems to enjoy it.
Have baby, will travel to Gibraltar
August 14th, 2011I have to admit that I didn’t make it to Gibraltar. I was too tired. I’m a little regretful, because I do think that it was one of the highlights for the Oes. One of the reason is because there were wild monkeys everywhere. Supposedly there are around 200 of them, and they are all tagged and vaccinated and kept well fed so that they don’t go down into town. Here’s Zoe looking a little worried at the sight of one of them:
I thought it was just a huge rock, but according to Chloe, inside there was a cave, and it was where they had a temporary hospital during the war.
They did a good job without me there, with Joe, their aunts and uncle, and grandparents helping them up the steps. The one thing I did notice when they got back was that their white Supergas had black stains all over them. When I asked what that was, Zoe said, “Poop! Monkey poop! Hahaha…” I think it was just black soot from the cave, but since this is the first place in the world the Oes have been to without me, I have no idea.
