Olivia had a blast during the annual "day after Christmas" shopping. We decided to go to Stanford and enjoy the beautiful weather (and free parking). We got there a little before 9am and was surprised that it was not crowded yet (most stores opened at 8am). We only got around to a few stores. I was saddened to see that TSE and Arthur Beren were no longer there and William Sonoma Home was closing down! Our last stop was Neiman's where we grabbed lunch. While waiting for a table, Olivia had a fantastic time in their kiddie section. One of David's coworkers saw this photo and asked if it was her playroom at home. We wish!! She loved trying to get the attention of other children, playing with toy dolls, but most of all she loved the 'her size' piano. At one point, she was exploring around the glass display shelves. She tried putting her hand on one section and was thoroughly shocked when she fell through as there was no glass in that section. Her expression of realization was hilarious! If only I can share a visual of my memory. Overall, it was quite hard to tear her away from the piano for lunch.
Is it me, or is she really trying to play? She's not just banging with her hands, but using her fingers?! We should really get her that piano to see if any talents can be groomed ;). Per the title of this post, her Uncle Erick said, "With that pink piano? Definitely Elton John!"
Okay, totally hilarious in person. Too hard to capture on video. We ran out of tape, misplaced the Flip and Dave's video cam's memory is full! So had to use my phone. Will try to get a better video next time. Olivia loves to rock out to music on TV. She started with Michael Jackson and now she loves to watch the Sing Off and rock out in her high chair.
Shy of 14 months, Olivia is now starting to walk! Solid steps, pauses, and even turn arounds, along with the occasional rah-rah hand shakes. And though I have not even had the time to upload her 12 month stats and 1st birthday photos and tale, I just had to rush over to the PC and upload this video for Olivia's grandparents to see - and Dad, as he's working :b! ** Sorry 婆 婆, but she's wearing her bib... :)
I better get to my blog posts, because I have a feeling I'll really have no time now that Liv's mobile!
My how time flies. Olivia is turning 1 years old in 15 days! I am still behind on my updates from previous activities and trips. But I just had to post this video of Olivia walking on her own with her Radio Flyer. I cheated and put a lot of books in the wagon to weigh it down, but I'm sure before I know it, she'll be cruising around without the walker! I found out after videoing this that Olivia was already walking with the walker without help a couple of days ago with my sister, but this is her second time doing this. She's always crawling properly on all fours now. The only catch is that she'll only do this on carpeted areas and not on the hardwood. When she reaches the end of the rug, she'll resort back to her tripod method of scooting...haha.
So Liv has officially mastered the understanding of "No." And though she can't verbalize "No," she has full working knowledge of the oh-so-ever-popular "headshake" and the universal hand gesture as seen in this below footage:
Downtown LA * Santa Monica * Culver City * Ladera Ranch * Foothill Ranch * Rowland Heights * Hacienda Heights * Anaheim * Corona Del Mar * Costa Mesa
Oh my, you say! I still can't believe we were able to pull it off! I've been wanting to go to SoCal for so long, but with Baby, work, weddings, holidays it was hard to find a time to go. But when David got more than just a weekend off for our 4 year anniversary, I went into high gear trip planning. I really should change jobs and become a professional trip planner...actually, a personal assistant is more like it!
As you saw the above stats, those are actuals. But it really felt more like: 2 Babies, 1 Parent, 1 Day and 20 Cities! The tricky part of planning was coordinating locations. As most know, driving 5 miles in SoCal can equate to 20 mins! So here's a recap:
**warning** it's a long blog post...diary style....so if you have the time...enjoy!
Aug 18th - Feldman Family Time Olivia is now a professional traveler. We got up early, fed her, dressed her and rushed her out of the house. Lucky for us she's the most enjoyable morning baby. Cooing, smiling and cooperative. As we went through the airport, we would always get comments like "oh what a happy baby", "look at her smile", "what big eyes." We feel so blessed that we aren't the parents with crying/screaming babies/kids -- though I fully empathize. I was a bit worried as the flight was scheduled during her nap and she didn't really sleep since she was more interested in what was going on.
The plan was that after we got into LAX, we would drive straight to downtown LA to eat Ramen at Daikokuya (highly recommended by my sister, introduced to us by Bonnie's cousin Jenny). I was worried about the wait warned by folks and the web since we would be there around noon. However, between getting our luggage and waiting for the Alamo shuttle (6 buses came and went before one picked up passengers!) we decided we quickly had to restrategize.
So Dave fought his way onto the Alamo bus with 1 suitcase, 1 carseat with base and 1 heavy computer bag and I, with 1 baby, 1 stroller, 1 diaper bag and 1 suitcase, headed back to the terminal to wait up at departure (due to the heavy arrival traffic)!! In the end, we made it and had our Ramen fix. Their sliced pork belly is yum, but we felt that the Ramen was as good as Santa Ramen back in San Mateo (which is was easier to get to - hehe). I think we may have to go back with my sister or Jenny to order the good stuff.
By the time we got to Le Merigot in Santa Monica, it was late in the afternoon and it was hot. Olivia was still in good spirits, even though she only had 2 catnaps. I was sooo excited to go to Le Merigot. It is right next to the Loews Hotel (where I had a great experience with an ocean view room and beautiful beach facing pool). To top it off, I cashed in 15k/night points for the room aka FREE! So you must understand my utter stress and disappointment when we tried to check in and they could not find my reservation! Turned out that I had booked the wrong hotel. Somehow I booked at another JW Marriott! (In fact the one near downtown, which we had passed and I had commented to Dave "wow, that's new to the LA downtown skyline.") To top it off, Le Merigot only had 1 night available for points and the other night was $400! So we just had to make do and we got the other night with a lower AAA rate...boo...AND to pour salt onto open wounds, they were sold out and did not have a room with a King.
After we checked in, I had to chill out and we decided to go to the pool.....more salt... the pool was smaller than a motel pool - with no view of the ocean! So I was quite sulky, but David and Olivia cheered me up and we had a great rest of the night with a trip to 3rd Street Promenade and a poolside nightcap at Loews..hehe. Happy Anniversary!
************ ************ *Photo Here* ************ ************ We suck at taking couple photos... ;(
Aug 19th - Debbie / Bruin Day We had many good reasons (people) to visit SoCal, but one close to my heart was to visit Debbie. She's my longtime friend, roommate, confidante and had some challenges to overcome this past year. We've been through so much with our challenges, goals and successes over the last 13 years. I still remember the first day we met at UCLA orientation in Cooperage waiting in line for food. Who'd have known we'd grow so close together -- and always with food involved!! With my pregnancy and birth of Olivia, I wasn't there for her as much and she had not met Olivia yet. I just had to make sure she met Olivia before Olivia turned 1!
So in the morning, Dave and I went to UCLA...to go shopping...haha. We got Liv a chearleading outfit and a really cute and appropriate shirt:
We then went to lunch with Debbie at Royal-T. A very cute Japanese cafe/art gallery/shop -- check out their website: http://www.royal-t.org/. To my happy happy surprise, Richa (my college flatmate, friend and partner in crime) was able to meet up! She too had a lot of challenges recently and I was grateful that she was able to meet up with me and meet Liv for the first time. I was very disappointed that I did not get to meet Rohan (her 2 year old boy) and see her hubby Roman. A good reason to go back to SoCal!
My family has an ongoing joke that Olivia is Hello Kitty. When we announced to the family that we were not only expecting a baby, but a baby girl, Erick had suggested that we name her Hello Kitty. Why? I don't know, you'll have to ask him. But since then Olivia has gotten Hello Kitty items before and after her birth. As she grew older, my mom commented that with her squarish head and big eyes, Olivia does somewhat resemble Hello Kitty. And so the joke continues because for Olivia's 7 month photoshoot with Aunt Christine, we even posed her in Hello Kitty poses (sitting with her legs to the side, but her face facing you). When we got to Royal-T Cafe, they had Hello Kitty bows! Of course Dave and I had a good laugh when we put the bow on her. We think she needs to grow into it more...haha Dave of course had to do work, so he went back to the hotel and Liv and I hung out at Debbie's place playing with their new Border Collie, Yoshi, and watching Daigi (her cat - my Friendster profile) hiss at Yoshi. Liv was so good with Yoshi, not scared at all! And Yoshi loved licking Liv. I guess babies are nothing but sweetness!
Come evening we met up with some of my UCLA family: Debbie, Fletcher, Larissa with her hubby Baldwin. We decided to have dinner at one of our favorite college eateries, Versailles. They are known for their Garlic Chicken which tastes oh so great with plantains and black beans! Baldwin had not met Liv before and when he first held her, she looked at him and did razzes! How did she know that he was the lyrical engineer?! It might be because we listen to Baldwin and Larissa's music in the car :) Check out Larissa's site. She sang at our wedding which made it all that much more special.
Thus ended the West LA portion of our tour. We then ventured into The OC, where we traveled from Santa Monica all the way to Ladera Ranch! Original plan was to visit Dave's cousins the Hirata sisters, as they were not able to come to Aaron's wedding in Kona this summer. In addition, two more cousins were born (Ethan who's ~1 month younger).
Cousins' Day (Olivia, Ethan, Paige, Lauren, Hailey, Alexa, Sophia)
Afterwards, we packed up and headed to visit Liv's Aunt Kristine at Foothill Ranch. She had recently gone through a transplant and we wanted to say hi and see how she was; lucky for us Kristine had just gotten the green light for visitors. Elsa, who was at Stephanie's, was planning on going as well (it was their dad's bday) and lucky for Liv, she got to hang out some more with her cousin Paige (who is ~3 months older). Here's a cute video of them playing with a bouncy ball:
The Hirata's were so gracious to ask us to stay for dinner. They invited Sharon over as well, and since we were planning to see Sharon and Ryan but it was getting late for Liv and they live in Anaheim, Sharon said yes and they were nice enough to drive all the way out on a Friday and with her being ~8 months preggers....Yep! Yippie! Liv gets her first 1st cousin...a girl cousin at that!
When it was time to say good bye, Liv's Auntie Sharon wanted to spend some 1:1 time with Liv...to our amusement, Liv gave Auntie Sharon many many wet kisses. I wanted to get a video but we got photos instead...I wonder if she remembers Auntie Sharon...or if she just knew that she was a Feldman too. I've not seen her give sooo many kisses to another person other than her 阿 姨 (my sister - who gets the most) then her 婆 婆 (my mom - who gets second most), then me (yes 3rd in line).
Today we headed out to The Heights...Rowland Heights and Hacienda Heights. At Rowland Heights we went to Debbie's parents' house. Over the course of my college years, I spent a lot of weekends at Debbie's parents' house. I still remember how amazed I was when the first time I stayed over, we had stayed up all night watching movies and Chinese movies and the next morning, half asleep, I heard via intercom, "Debbie -- do you want McDonalds or Dim Sum?"......"Debbie, we are home with the Dim Sum!" Wha--?! And to top it off, we had BoBa Nai Cha waiting in the fridge for us!!
Needless to say their home was my home away from home so I just had to bring Liv over to visit with them. Of course when we got there, Liv worked her charm and had Mr. & Mrs. Yu under her spell. I even have a photo with Debbie's dad smiling with her (Deb told me that he rarely breaks a smile for the camera). Liv was also extra comfortable with them, so they convinced Dave and me to go with Debbie and Michale to a store and they would take care of Liv for an hour....eeps...I held my breath and went out the door. When we got back, the report was that she did very well and was okay until about 5 minutes before we got back...which Mrs. Yu was then able to distract her with a running faucet...haha....
So we packed up (notice how I say "pack up" every time...it's not an exaggeration...one little person can have sooooo much stuff!) and off we went to Hacienda Heights...which was timed perfectly...ya 15 mins away perfectly...where Liv got to hang out with her Jenny Yi-Yi and Uncle Billy. It was so nice to finally be able to relax...after all, Jenny is my family family ;). We didn't get to spend too much time with them. Liv had slept during the 15 minute ride, so we brought her in in her car seat. Poor Liv, I bet it seemed like every time she closed her eyes for a nap she woke up in a new environment with new faces from when she closed them! But as always she's a trooper with smiles a-blazing. Lucky for us Jenny and Billy will be moving up and we'll get to see them more. Can't wait for playdates with future baby cousins (hint hint if you are reading this!!!)
And then we were off again to meet up with the Joe's in Anaheim. They thoughtfully suggested eating in Anaheim since it was closer to where we were at the time than going to them. I insisted that they bring their girls as I love seeing them and wanted them to meet Liv. We were so happy to hear that they would come and very happy to hear Uncle Dick & Aunt Marian were coming as well! We had a great time eating dinner at Roy's. If you have kids and want to go to Roy's, go to the Anaheim one because it's kid friendly being so close to Disneyland.
All the girls behaved..until the very last bit of dinner...which was just in time for us to wrap up and go. But amongst the chaos of leaving, both of Olivia's hands got stuck in the stroller. Apparently, when Dave had opened the stroller, he did not snap the hinges in place completely and when I saw that I tried snapping it down. But it didn't lock right away so I snapped it down harder and was strolling out after I heard it snap in place...when all of a sudden Dave's like, "her hand, her hand!" He saw that one of them was caught and he pulled it out. I thought I had hit her hand on the wall when strolling out. She was crying really loud, but the restaurant and chaos was sooo noisy you couldn't even hear her. So I tried to pull her out of the stroller to comfort her when I realized she wasn't budging because her other hand was caught! What a frantic moment! She was screaming and I thought I broke her fingers as did Dave! I rushed her outside and sat her down in my lap to calm her. After 5 mins of crying she calmed down and after 2 more mins she started smiling and babbling again in between hiccups....I felt soo bad! But she's our little trooper!
Our last day of fun! We wound down The Tour at the Murray house in Corona Del Mar. It was a perfect ending to our tour. Well, it would have been a perfect ending to our tour. We headed out to the Murray house in the morning to meet up with the Laws. Both of us happened to be in SoCal and were able to meet up at Sindy's house for brunch. She made a delish meal with freshly baked croissants (there isn't a croissant that goes by without me thinking of Sin -- Jo, June & Sin know what I mean) and choco croissants, egg quiche and bacon. Yum! The Murray's hadn't met Liv yet because right after my baby shower and right after Beckett was born they had to move to SoCal. (Sin blames June because June's theory is that us 4 girls can't ever all be in The Bay at the same time -- and June had just moved back right before Sin found out they had to move to SoCal!)
It was a nice leisurely morning. Liv had taken her morning nap on the way there so again, when she woke up, she was somewhere new with new people. She was welcomed by Makenna (2 yrs) in the family room as Makenna showed her some of her toys. During brunch we moved all the kiddies in for feeding and afterwards they got to play...or shall I say parallel play (see photo). Apparently it's a noted thing, parallel play. Once again, it was just one boy in the room...the Birthday Boy that is...Mr. Beckett! He's 7 weeks older than Liv.
Between brunch and Beckett's party, Dave, Liv and I headed to South Coast Plaza Shopping Center...it was scorching hot. Afterwards, we got back in the car and once again Liv fell asleep....which I had already messed up...I should have gotten Liv to sleep at the mall or at Sin's house. So when we got back to the Murray house, she was asleep...which was fine, I waited in the car for her to wake with the windows rolled down. When she did wake I took her out sweaty and all....mind you it was still hot but the day was starting to wind down. I asked Dave once, to calm my paranoia, whether it was okay that we didn't put a layer on Liv since she had just woken up from a sweaty nap, but then it was 90 degrees. Liv had a great time...a little fussy, but mesmerized by the magic bubbles Sindy had going at the park.
After birthday songs, balloons, and cupcakes, it was time for us to jet back over to Costa Mesa to meet up with the Wang's. Tina just had her daughter Makenzie (almost 1 month old). We were so happy that they were willing to come all the way out to Anjin for dinner. Unfortunately it was too hard for them to bring both Sebastian and a newborn to a self-cook BBQ restaurant. A little factoid - the first time we met Sebas was when he was also 1 month old, at Anjin at the same table! It was icing on the cake for us -- great friends, new faces, yummy food. It was suppose to just hit the spot! But after 5 mins Liv started fussing. I tried all my restaurant tricks and tactics with her, but they just wouldn't do. Finally I took her out in a stroller thinking she must be sleepy if she's so fussy. Dave and I traded off a couple of times because she wouldn't fall asleep. I finally brought her back in and she was back to her old self, happy as can be, so we took that opportunity to snap some photos for the memory book/blog. :)
Then shortly after again she got fussy...sigh...sorry Tina! Sorry Nick! We went back to the hotel where we got her to sleep...and all the while she was very fussy and screechy. This whole tour she had been sleeping in cribs on her own. This night she just fussed. I held her hand through the bars and she still fussed so I finally brought her into our bed where she finally started sleeping..but with tosses and turns. And then I realized she was running a temperature! Oh no! I should have gone with my mother's instinct and put something on her after her nap. Yes, I know the theory about not being able to get sick from being cold, but whatever...she was sick. First time I really realized and appreciated my own mom's paranoia...I felt soo guilty that she was sick. After all, she's completely dependent on us to keep her safe and healthy...sigh. Sorry Liv.
Aug 23rd - Home..sick.. All night she tossed and turn *guilt*guilt*guilt* so she didn't get up too early today. I tried to do a bit of packing the night before, but waited until this morning to do some more. Managed to get a lot in before she woke. I had purposely planned for today to be a free, relaxing day in case we needed to meet up with friends/family that we didn't get to earlier. But luckily we were able to see 99% of the folks on my list (sorry Ed!).
We ended up not checking out until 3pm, because after her first waking (with minimal breakfast) Liv went back to sleep for about 2 1/2 hours! Dave ended up walking to South Coast for McD's and we dined in front of the room in the hotel hallway (felt like college days again!).
Despite how she was feeling, Olivia was our trooper. She fussed just a little on the plane but for the most part she hung out like she normally does on planes....whew! We are such lucky parents!! *guilt*guilt*guilt* When we got home, she was quite exhausted. I thought I'd just feed her milk and nothing else because she seemed so sleepy while drinking milk. My family had picked us up and stayed for dinner. Shortly after I came down to join them for dinner, Liv woke up fussy. I tried to get her to sleep, but she didn't want to have any of it, so per her 婆 婆 's suggestion (more like insistence), I brought her down. She was hilarious. She was so excited to see everyone that she was making her "eh" noises (her way of calling out to people when she wants their attention - will try to film it on video one day!).
All in all it was a great tour. Thanks for coming along on the recount!
Okay, even though I am behind on my postings, I just had to post these adorable photos of Olivia's new cousin, Max! He was born August 4th to Bonnie's cousin Sandy and her husband Harry. Max is so adorable and well behaved. He never fussed once and was always looking around. He has a great set of hair, cute pointy chin, and such calm and alert eyes! We all think he looks a lot like Harry. Bonnie thought that every so often he reminded her of his Aunt Jenny. Later on, it was agreed within our household that he looked like Harry and Sandy's father side...which made sense why Bonnie thought he reminded her of Jenny :)
We were so excited to meet him as he's the first male to born on Bonnie's mother's side since 3 generations ago! Bonnie's grandma had Bonnie's mom and Sandy's mom and they in turn had two daughters of their own!
When we found out Bonnie was having a girl, we thought the tradition will definitely go on. Imagine how surprised we were to hear Sandy expecting a boy! We just know that this record Max broke will be the first of many records he'll beat in his lifetime!
Welcome to our family Max! Olivia can't wait to meet you!
We were in Kona for David's brother's wedding when Olivia turned 9 months old. We didn't have her pediatrician appointment until we got back from Kona, and we were very excited to get her measurements as we all thought that Olivia sprouted while we were out in Kona. Boy were we right...must have been all the sunshine, water and ocean air! Here are her stats:
9 Months (click for 8 Months): Length: 28 1/2 in (80th percentile) Weight: 19.15 lbx (70th percentile) Head: 46 cm (93rd percentile)**
**David was a little disappointed on her Head Percentile as she's gone down...I'm just happy that I pushed her out of me okay!**
She still has no interest in crawling. She is very content with sitting, more so that being on her back or tummy. She will reach for things around her and if it's not reachable she's content with amusing herself with what is reachable. She does want to walk and loves to stand. If you hold her up she'll begin taking steps. Right now she seems more comfortable taking (big) steps with her left foot. She's so happy to do be "stepping" that she'll try to let go of your hands to clap! Food wise, we've decided to be more adventurous and less cautious (after seeing our friends the Chins feed their baby (20 days older) chocolate ice cream cake!). We are feeding her fruits, breads and cheeses off our plates. Olivia was quick to figure out how to pinch her food and bring it to her mouth. If that fails, she shoves whatever is in her hand to her mouth palm open wide! We definitely do not have to worry about her going hungry!
David was very excited for this year's father's day. He already was planning, I mean helping Olivia, plan his 1st Father's Day. :) Olivia was just as excited as she got ready for the day sporting her new US Open Pebble Beach bucket hat. She waited patiently to give her dad his Father's Day present. After breakfast, they watched the US Open together and then got ready for a good ol' grill with yummy Costco steaks with the rest of the family where she celebrated 公公's first GRANDFather's Day.
Today Olivia turns 8 months old! I can't believe how fast time flies and how much she's developed! She's now sleeping through the night (as you may remember in First Time Away posting - she fell back to waking up in the middle of the night crying and wanting to be carried), though she wakes up anytime between 5a - 6a for a morning snack from the milk bar. Then she'll fall back asleep until anywhere between 7a-8a. Today she didn't wake up until 8:15am! Which was lovely for us sleepy adults, but then we weren't able to get to her pediatrician's office until 9am. This was a problem as the waiting room was quite occupied and we had no appointment! Olivia's next doctor's appointment isn't until her 9 month in July. In which we'll not be able to go until after we come back from her Uncle Aaron's wedding in Kona. So David and I decided to drop in at Dr. Tanaka's office to see if we could weigh her. Fortunately, after a tsk-tsk, they gave us a room. The weight is accurate, but the length is iffy.
I guess I'm making up for 3 months of non-blogging! Here's the 2nd post for the day. Liv just started razzing. This is the first time I caught it on tape as she's razzing non-stop today! I think it's hilarious that she makes an ugly face in her efforts of razzing...haha. I cut 5 mins worth of razzing so as not to overdo it for others' enjoyment....I on the other hand can just watch all day long!! You'll also notice her hand waving (I call her my humming bird). She's learned "Ho Yea" or "Hooray" and she'll wave her hands like crazy and clap. I'll have to find my video of that to upload to this posting later.
We've done lots of video's of Olivia's first tastings. However, they are across tapes and flip videos' and too much of a pain to post each time. But today, David was home and we decided to give her her first tasting of Pear Yogurt so that he can video it with his Droid. She liked it for the most part as seen in the video below, but after videoing, she decided she did not like it and continued to gag on the yogurt. I thought it might be the texture (or there lack of) and added some Oatmeal Cereal to it, but still got the gag. David thought it might the amount being served on the spoon. I lessened it to a bare min and she still gag. The consensus was that she just didn't like it. So after about 8 good spoonfuls, I switched back to her regular baby food (this time Peach Banana Granola). She was very hesitant and would clamp her lip down with arms crossed! I had to wedge the spoon in which after a few secs she'd realize that it wasn't the yogurt and would then proceed to gulp it down like she normally would. Before each spoonful, she'd clamp her lip down until I wedge it in and she realizes that this is the stuff that she likes! Can you believe it, not even 8 months old yet! In anycase, I will probably (or probably would have, depending on when you are reading this) back logged her first taste of solids. Just look for the title starting with "1st Tasting: ***"
We ended a great long weekend with dinner at Los Altos Grill. The weather was nice and people were out and about. We purposely reserved a table for 6:15pm in hopes of finishing early so that Liv can make her bedtime of 7:30pm. But alas, we were all having such a great time with my parents, my sister and Erick that time flew past us and by the time we were done it was about 8:30pm! I think we ended up staying out late because Liv was such a good diner! She sat in her booster seat in the booth along with us adults and had a grand ol' time. She even finished her dinner before ours came! It wasn't until the very end that she started wilting, as seen in the photos below. She didn't scream or fuss, she just decided to lean against me! It was the first time and oh so sweet and enduring, it will just melt your heart - as it did with everyone at the table! ** Sidenote: in the past and to this date she when she would fuss while sleeping, I would go to her crib and stand by her and put my hand on her chest. And if I dare to move it away she would wimper. When I put my hand back to her chest she would grab it with both hands and put my hand to her face! So cute, but I hope that we can break this comfort habit!**
The weather still seemed to nice to pass up for a meal outdoors, so we headed out to Burlingame Avenue and ate our favorite outdoor, Higgins-friendly, restaurant Stacks! Higgins has gotten very good with his behavior when eating at stacks. Stacks doesn't seem to mind when we hoist up Higgs onto a chair and let him sit with the grown-ups. Olivia had a great time watching everyone walk by. Often times we get people coming up saying what a cute dog! What a cute baby. Sadly each time, I'm holding my breath hoping hard that Higgs will behave! But despite the stress, I still always try to bring Higgs out wherever we go!
Memorial weekend continued on for Liv as we headed out to visit with cousin Frank & Sherri. They had just gotten back a week ago from France and we were excited to see the photos they had taken. David had lent his wide angle lens to them and boy did they make great use of the lens! They took these awesome photos of France's landmarks, castles and scenery!
Sherri laid out a great feast as always and Frank fired up the grill like a champ. I was very happy with how smoothly everything went with Liv and us spending time with the Malloys.
We just got back from an impromptu swim party from my cousin Sandy's house in PV. This may very well be the last swim party of many as they are moving this weekend to their new house in A. Sadly, David could not go with us as he had to work a late shift in the ER today. We wish he could have been there as he would have been delighted to see Liv having so much fun in the water! She was so excited to get into her new polka dotted bikini (and matching hat!) from her Yi PauPau. I hope that I'm not biased in saying that she looked a-d-o-r-a-b-l-e...and if I am then who cares cuz she was just way too cute in the water.
I bought her this floaty that has a canopy to protect her in the sun and she had a blast. You can see in the video that she's kicking her feet! I was very disappointed to have forgotten my underwater camera that David got me for this past xmas. I ended up with a video from my phone, but I have the old Android and it only allows for me to video oneminute at a time. I'll just have to remember next time. In any case, Sandy first took note of Liv putting her mouth in the water! We thought she may be drinking the pool water but upon closer look she was just touching the water, and once or twice I think she licked the water! David had said that she was at an age where she explores with her mouth....looks to be true..haha. I wish I had a video of that but by that time I'd gotten my hands wet again. Toward the end Sandy and I even saw her blowing bubbles in the water!
We ended up being in the pool - well really jaccuzzi as there was not enough time to heat up the big pool for this impromptu swim party (Szeto Clan were all there sans Momma Szeto). I give a lot of credit to Brian for venturing out, and swimming nonetheless, with all 3 kids + 1 more (Nomi's friend)! We were in the pool for over an hour. Liv's feet were so wrinkled (again wish I had my camera). I dried Liv off after attempting to rinse her in the backyard sink. Changed her. Fed her. Changed myself. Again props to Brian. Ate dinner after Harry picked it up. Changed her diaper. Collected our stuff. Packed the car. Drove home. Fixed bottle. Let Higgs out to pee. Got Liv up to her room. Changed her to PJ's. Fed her. Got stuff out of the car....WHEW!
I do miss the ol' days of impromptu pool parties, where I can just grab my suit, sunglasses and a towel and just go! Then stay till the wee hours and come home! But I wouldn't trade these photos and videos for wee hours, not even a lil' bitta wee!
We finally broke the barrier. I went on my first business trip Monday, for a customer meeting in St. Louis, MO. I was only gone for 33 hours, but everyone held their breath...well primarily David...
Though I missed my family greatly, I was very relaxed and at one point on the plane it felt like the olden days before baby, before doggie, befor hubby (I traveled nationally and internationally quite often for work). The hardest thing about traveling was trying to figure out when and where to pump!
Per David's updates via photos and SMS's, all was well at home. He fed baby, soothed baby, woke up in the middle of the night to her fake-out fusses (where she kicks her feet as if she's about to wake up and fuss) and finally waking up to her demanding screens of feed me at ~4am! Welcome to a mom's world! Next day all was well, Olivia with her morning smiles and giggles playing with Dad, hanging out with 婆婆 during the day. I was sad at the idea of coming home to Olivia sleeping, so when I heard Olivia fussing for more milk (she needs to drink all 8 oz of milk - sometimes she'll fall asleep with it unfinished and will wake up to finish the rest of the milk before she sleeps through the night), I rushed up to feed her (not to mention I was about to burst). Olivia fussed a bit, then drank her milk. When she was done, she started to cry and scream. This is quite unusual as she's always pretty good with me when she's fussing. I was a little perplexed and tried to feed her more, pat her, sooth her but Olivia would not have it. Finally I turned on the light low and hushed Olivia and soothed her and finally Olivia calmed down with her head against my chest, she began to fall asleep. We think that Olivia behaved as such because either she knew I was gone for awhile or because she was afraid I would disappear again!
In the end everyone survived and all is well and back to normal in the Feldman family. Whew!
My sister met up with me early in the morning one day to race to Old Navy to be part of ther first 50 who got their 50% Off Anything Tote Bag. At one point she was on a foot race with another group of ladies....luckily we all made it through we were numbers 42 orf 43!
Those who know me know that shopping is not a favorite past time of mine, but now I'm willing to wait in line to go shopping for Liv!! Even then I didn't buy too much because she has so many cute hand-me downs from her gal pals, Miranda, Makenna and Hannah!!
My sister ended up buying Higgins a new toy from Old Navy. A Hot Dog for a Cool Dog :)...boy did Higgy go to town with it! I think it only lasted a week...and that was stretching the life of the poor hot dog!
Auntie Debbie
Cousins' Day
F
Dinner with the Joe's
Happy Father's Day!
I Love You Dad!
8 Months (ehem...Dad Feeding
