So today is our 7th wedding anniversary, can't believe it's been this long already!! We sorta met each other in 1999, started dating in 2000. Got engaged in 2004 and married in 2005. 7 years later we are the proud parents of two very sweet and beautiful girls. Life is definitely getting sweeter :-)
I love you, Dave!!
Monday, September 17, 2012
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Two!
So Miss Arwen turned two on September 5. I can't believe our youngest one is longer a baby and is growing up fast!! I think maybe cuz she is probably our last child, I just want to cherish her every step/milestone even more. And I don't want her to grow up so fast! We didn't have a big celebration for her, but we did go to Chuck E Cheese as a fam. Arwen cried when she saw Chuck E Cheese (the robotic dancing one). She was scared. We had to move our seats, but she'd still turn around and saw it and cried. lol. But she ended up having a great time. Arwen loved the merry go round, she went on at least 10 times, haha. And big sis, Noelle helped bake a cake (funfetti FTW!). We all enjoyed the cake as dessert at home.
We started BSF and MSG last week. That means, mommy gets to have a couple of hours on those days every week to be away from the girls. Yay!! I mean, awwww. But it's also a good opportunities for the girls to play with other kids and teachers. Arwen cried at MSG, but she was fine since Noelle was with her. We'll see how Arwen does with BSF next week. The girls won't be in the same class (age differences), so I'm really worried that Arwen is going to have a very hard time. Definitely praying hard for this girl!! And her BSF teachers!
We started BSF and MSG last week. That means, mommy gets to have a couple of hours on those days every week to be away from the girls. Yay!! I mean, awwww. But it's also a good opportunities for the girls to play with other kids and teachers. Arwen cried at MSG, but she was fine since Noelle was with her. We'll see how Arwen does with BSF next week. The girls won't be in the same class (age differences), so I'm really worried that Arwen is going to have a very hard time. Definitely praying hard for this girl!! And her BSF teachers!
Saturday, September 1, 2012
Potty training
We potty trained Noelle right before Arwen was born, when she was 2.5 years old. It took us about 1-2 weeks to get her used to going on potty. And soon after she went completely diaper-free. Noelle is excellent in holding to go during sleep. We knew we got pretty lucky with her, potty training with Noelle wasn't nearly as scary or difficult as I had expected to be.
I thought we could start introduce or at least get Arwen to be familiar with potty. So I bought a baby bjorn potty about 3 months ago (?). Arwen knew exactly what it was the day I brought it home and wanted to use it. Ever since then, she's been really interested in going on the little potty. And then about a week after, she stopped. I wasn't ready to be fully committed to be potty training Arwen yet. I thought we'd actually start it when she's 2.5 years old. I guess the thing with being younger siblings is that they'll want to follow/copy the older siblings. About 1-1.5 months ago, Arwen decided that she wants to use the toilet instead. So we used the toddler insert thing and she took it without problem. Then about a few weeks ago, she wanted to go without the insert. At first, we'd hold her since she's still tiny and we don't want her to fall in. But a couple of weeks ago, she started holding on the seat herself and is able to go. Arwen is still wearing pull-ups and diapers during naps/night time. But I think we can probably transition her to underwears soon. I had tried underwears with her one day and she peed thru 4-5 pairs within a few hours. I got lazy, so we haven't use underwears since. Arwen now tells us she needs to go (most of the time when she needs to go poo-poo, but she says pee-pee, and she calls pee-pee, shh-shh).
I think the mommy just need to suck it up and bring out the big girl underwears :-P
I thought we could start introduce or at least get Arwen to be familiar with potty. So I bought a baby bjorn potty about 3 months ago (?). Arwen knew exactly what it was the day I brought it home and wanted to use it. Ever since then, she's been really interested in going on the little potty. And then about a week after, she stopped. I wasn't ready to be fully committed to be potty training Arwen yet. I thought we'd actually start it when she's 2.5 years old. I guess the thing with being younger siblings is that they'll want to follow/copy the older siblings. About 1-1.5 months ago, Arwen decided that she wants to use the toilet instead. So we used the toddler insert thing and she took it without problem. Then about a few weeks ago, she wanted to go without the insert. At first, we'd hold her since she's still tiny and we don't want her to fall in. But a couple of weeks ago, she started holding on the seat herself and is able to go. Arwen is still wearing pull-ups and diapers during naps/night time. But I think we can probably transition her to underwears soon. I had tried underwears with her one day and she peed thru 4-5 pairs within a few hours. I got lazy, so we haven't use underwears since. Arwen now tells us she needs to go (most of the time when she needs to go poo-poo, but she says pee-pee, and she calls pee-pee, shh-shh).
I think the mommy just need to suck it up and bring out the big girl underwears :-P
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Restarting
Wow, last time I had a blog entry was almost 2 years ago?! mamamakat has became a blogless blog for far too long, lol. I'd like to start blogging again. Let's see if I can keep it up this time around.
What's been going on with me? Well, I'm still a stay-at-home mom. And now my girls are attending a parents co-op preschool for once a week and we are sorta homeschooling in between as well. I figure I can include more lesson time since they only get 2-3 hours of "school" each week. Noelle was in a preschool from 9-12, 5 days a week last year. So I'd like to keep her mind in the "school" setting as much before she enters kinder next year. Gasp! She's going to be a kinder? No way.
The homeschool curriculum I'm using is from a website called abcjesuslovesme.com The name is kinda cheesy, not gonna lie. But it's free and the curriculum was written by a mom who has homeschooled her kids. It covers everything a regular preschool teach and then also incorporate bible lessons. That I like. Best part is that the curriculum is FREE! You can either print them off the website or pay a little and have them send you it in book form. And you basically just follow this 36-week program. Each week, they introduce alphabet, number, color, social things, bible theme, etc. etc. I even had Arwen started on this too. She's still not quite understanding the whole sitting down, school part yet. But she's not even 2 yet, and I think she's been doing fantastically so far.
Anyways, I better stop here now and tend to my girls. They are currently playing and listening to Andy Z music in the front room (one of their fav things to do together).
---edited to add---
Totally forgot to mention this part. But my most proud accomplishment from this summer has to be completing this 100 reading lessons with Noelle. She is 4.5 years old now and she can sight read!! I'm so proud of this girl!! We also have been frequenting the libraries. I hope this will help both kids become avid readers.
What's been going on with me? Well, I'm still a stay-at-home mom. And now my girls are attending a parents co-op preschool for once a week and we are sorta homeschooling in between as well. I figure I can include more lesson time since they only get 2-3 hours of "school" each week. Noelle was in a preschool from 9-12, 5 days a week last year. So I'd like to keep her mind in the "school" setting as much before she enters kinder next year. Gasp! She's going to be a kinder? No way.
The homeschool curriculum I'm using is from a website called abcjesuslovesme.com The name is kinda cheesy, not gonna lie. But it's free and the curriculum was written by a mom who has homeschooled her kids. It covers everything a regular preschool teach and then also incorporate bible lessons. That I like. Best part is that the curriculum is FREE! You can either print them off the website or pay a little and have them send you it in book form. And you basically just follow this 36-week program. Each week, they introduce alphabet, number, color, social things, bible theme, etc. etc. I even had Arwen started on this too. She's still not quite understanding the whole sitting down, school part yet. But she's not even 2 yet, and I think she's been doing fantastically so far.
Anyways, I better stop here now and tend to my girls. They are currently playing and listening to Andy Z music in the front room (one of their fav things to do together).
---edited to add---
Totally forgot to mention this part. But my most proud accomplishment from this summer has to be completing this 100 reading lessons with Noelle. She is 4.5 years old now and she can sight read!! I'm so proud of this girl!! We also have been frequenting the libraries. I hope this will help both kids become avid readers.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Arwen Symone
This is the birth story of our newest addition, Arwen Symone
I had sorta made peace with the fact that we were going to be induced on September 7, since Arwen's estimate due day came and went. My mind was set that she's going to come that day. At 1:10AM Sunday morning. While asleep, I felt this funny drizzle feeling, kinda like I was about to wet my bed. I got up to the restroom and there's a small gush of water came down. I thought, "hrmmm, does this mean my water just broke??" When we had Noelle, my water didn't break until I was well into labor and having lots and lots of strong contractions. My water broke when I was lying in the hospital bed and it felt like a water balloon popped. So I was very confused with this one. I called labor & delivery. They told me to wear a pad and walk around for 30 minutes. I did and nothing else happen. No more leakage nor any sorta contraction. So I called again. And they told me to keep an eye on it and that's it. I decided to go back to bed. Just then I felt another small gush of water. I knew it had to be my water. So I called the hospital and they told me to come in. Actually the rep told me the hospital may be full. After checking with someone, she told me as long as no one else show up before me, I should have a room (eeek!). I've never heard of hospital being full!! We quickly woke up my mom, so she can go watch Noelle for us and we headed out. As I was walking out the door, I had another small gush of water, it was rather interesting. Anyway, so off we went. I had no contractions at all. Got to the hospital checked myself in. They sent me to the observation room. They basically did some tests to make sure my bag of water did break and we'll go from there. A few hours later, I was admitted. They moved me to one of the birthing suite with me lying in bed. We waited and waited, I didn't feel any contractions. A doc came in and told me that they usually give the patients 6 hours from the moment her water breaks. If no contraction starts, they suggest using Pitocin to get things going. Or I may run the risk of infections. So I was like, "Let's go for it!" I was tired of waiting anyway, lol. They gave me Pitocin around 7AM. I started to feel little bit of painful contractions, nothing major tho. The nurse at the observation area found out that I didn't get to use epidural with Noelle because it was too late for me. So she highly encouraged me to ask for it as soon as I feel anything or feel uncomfortable. Same with the nurse in the birthing suite. So I asked for epidural right away. The anesthetic team came very quickly (they told me sometimes it takes 1 hr to get someone, so I should ask early) and the head doc was very smooth. I got my epidural in no time and it felt sooo weird, but in a good way. I then felt asleep and when I woke up around 11:30AM, they told me I was already 9cm dilated. I didn't feel a thing! That was the best part, lol.
The doc who checked me told me that I should be fully dilated soon. She was going to check on me again in 1-2 hours, but told me to speak up if I feel any pressure or have urge to push. I felt something pretty soon right after, so I told the nurse, Michelle, who was our fav birthing nurse. She asked if I want to start trying (was fully dilated), of course I said yes. I want this kid to be out, lol. We pushed for about 1 hour, nothing happened. They said the baby was still pretty high up. So they suggested me to take a break and try again later. 30 minutes later, we started pushing again. Still nothing, but at least the epidural helped me not feeling any pain. Around 3:30, the nurse changed shift, we were sad that Michelle didn't get to see our baby being born. And this time, we had Carol as our nurse. She's an older lady. We pushed some more, still nothing. They found out that the baby's head was not in the right or ideal position, which was also why all this pushing didn't progress much. Her head was sorta "stuck" behind the bones. Then Carol suggested that maybe we should turn off the epidural, so I can push more correctly and have more urge to push. At first I didn't want to do it, I meant that's why I chose epidural, to not have to go thru the awful pain. But Carol said that if I don't give up temporarily on epidural, I may have to have c-section. Since she put it that way, I agreed to turn off the epidural. She did say that we can turn it back on so I won't feel too uncomfortable. The epidural was off and pretty soon I started to feel the real deal. At first they weren't so unbearable. We tried different pushing positions and it seemed to work to my favor. The pain started getting real strong tho, and they had to give me oxygen because I had been pushing for so long and baby didn't like all these pushing too much (her heart rate dropped every time we pushed). So the doc asked me to push every other contraction. It's not that easy to do. When I had those strong contractions, it's a lot easier for me to push, if I don't, the pain was excruciating. But I had to follow their lead to keep Arwen safe, so I gave my best. I guess the doc and the nurse really knew what they are doing, all these things we tried brought Arwen down and soon her head started to show. I had to stop pushing for them to get the doc (Dr. March) in to deliver the baby. The final step was the worst. They had already turned the epidural back on, but I don't think it kicked back fast enough for me. My energy was pretty much drained at that point too (close to 4 hours pushing). I had to use every last drop of strength that's left in me to push this kiddie out. I was this close to ask for help, to have them suck her out or something. I really didn't think I could make it. Finally at 5:33PM, I felt this baby on me and that's how I first met our newest addition, Arwen Symone. When we had Noelle, she decided to poop while still in me. so as soon as she was born, they had to take her and clean her up, be sure she didn't suck in anything. Cuz of that, I didn't get to hold her until much later and Dave didn't get to cut the umbilical cord. This time around, I got to hold our baby the very moment she's born and Dave got to cut the cord. It was awesome. After a few minutes, they took Arwen to get her cleaned up and measure her size. We saw some black poo-poo on her baby butts and then I realized she had poo-pooed on me!!!! What the heck?! My 2 kids, one pooed in me and the other on me :-P Arwen was 8lb 2.8oz and 18.5 inches long. She's 1 lb heavier than her big sis' birth weight, but also 1 inch shorter. We've got one short and chubby kid, lol.
We are so thrilled to finally have her in our lives, our family is now complete :-)
I had sorta made peace with the fact that we were going to be induced on September 7, since Arwen's estimate due day came and went. My mind was set that she's going to come that day. At 1:10AM Sunday morning. While asleep, I felt this funny drizzle feeling, kinda like I was about to wet my bed. I got up to the restroom and there's a small gush of water came down. I thought, "hrmmm, does this mean my water just broke??" When we had Noelle, my water didn't break until I was well into labor and having lots and lots of strong contractions. My water broke when I was lying in the hospital bed and it felt like a water balloon popped. So I was very confused with this one. I called labor & delivery. They told me to wear a pad and walk around for 30 minutes. I did and nothing else happen. No more leakage nor any sorta contraction. So I called again. And they told me to keep an eye on it and that's it. I decided to go back to bed. Just then I felt another small gush of water. I knew it had to be my water. So I called the hospital and they told me to come in. Actually the rep told me the hospital may be full. After checking with someone, she told me as long as no one else show up before me, I should have a room (eeek!). I've never heard of hospital being full!! We quickly woke up my mom, so she can go watch Noelle for us and we headed out. As I was walking out the door, I had another small gush of water, it was rather interesting. Anyway, so off we went. I had no contractions at all. Got to the hospital checked myself in. They sent me to the observation room. They basically did some tests to make sure my bag of water did break and we'll go from there. A few hours later, I was admitted. They moved me to one of the birthing suite with me lying in bed. We waited and waited, I didn't feel any contractions. A doc came in and told me that they usually give the patients 6 hours from the moment her water breaks. If no contraction starts, they suggest using Pitocin to get things going. Or I may run the risk of infections. So I was like, "Let's go for it!" I was tired of waiting anyway, lol. They gave me Pitocin around 7AM. I started to feel little bit of painful contractions, nothing major tho. The nurse at the observation area found out that I didn't get to use epidural with Noelle because it was too late for me. So she highly encouraged me to ask for it as soon as I feel anything or feel uncomfortable. Same with the nurse in the birthing suite. So I asked for epidural right away. The anesthetic team came very quickly (they told me sometimes it takes 1 hr to get someone, so I should ask early) and the head doc was very smooth. I got my epidural in no time and it felt sooo weird, but in a good way. I then felt asleep and when I woke up around 11:30AM, they told me I was already 9cm dilated. I didn't feel a thing! That was the best part, lol.
The doc who checked me told me that I should be fully dilated soon. She was going to check on me again in 1-2 hours, but told me to speak up if I feel any pressure or have urge to push. I felt something pretty soon right after, so I told the nurse, Michelle, who was our fav birthing nurse. She asked if I want to start trying (was fully dilated), of course I said yes. I want this kid to be out, lol. We pushed for about 1 hour, nothing happened. They said the baby was still pretty high up. So they suggested me to take a break and try again later. 30 minutes later, we started pushing again. Still nothing, but at least the epidural helped me not feeling any pain. Around 3:30, the nurse changed shift, we were sad that Michelle didn't get to see our baby being born. And this time, we had Carol as our nurse. She's an older lady. We pushed some more, still nothing. They found out that the baby's head was not in the right or ideal position, which was also why all this pushing didn't progress much. Her head was sorta "stuck" behind the bones. Then Carol suggested that maybe we should turn off the epidural, so I can push more correctly and have more urge to push. At first I didn't want to do it, I meant that's why I chose epidural, to not have to go thru the awful pain. But Carol said that if I don't give up temporarily on epidural, I may have to have c-section. Since she put it that way, I agreed to turn off the epidural. She did say that we can turn it back on so I won't feel too uncomfortable. The epidural was off and pretty soon I started to feel the real deal. At first they weren't so unbearable. We tried different pushing positions and it seemed to work to my favor. The pain started getting real strong tho, and they had to give me oxygen because I had been pushing for so long and baby didn't like all these pushing too much (her heart rate dropped every time we pushed). So the doc asked me to push every other contraction. It's not that easy to do. When I had those strong contractions, it's a lot easier for me to push, if I don't, the pain was excruciating. But I had to follow their lead to keep Arwen safe, so I gave my best. I guess the doc and the nurse really knew what they are doing, all these things we tried brought Arwen down and soon her head started to show. I had to stop pushing for them to get the doc (Dr. March) in to deliver the baby. The final step was the worst. They had already turned the epidural back on, but I don't think it kicked back fast enough for me. My energy was pretty much drained at that point too (close to 4 hours pushing). I had to use every last drop of strength that's left in me to push this kiddie out. I was this close to ask for help, to have them suck her out or something. I really didn't think I could make it. Finally at 5:33PM, I felt this baby on me and that's how I first met our newest addition, Arwen Symone. When we had Noelle, she decided to poop while still in me. so as soon as she was born, they had to take her and clean her up, be sure she didn't suck in anything. Cuz of that, I didn't get to hold her until much later and Dave didn't get to cut the umbilical cord. This time around, I got to hold our baby the very moment she's born and Dave got to cut the cord. It was awesome. After a few minutes, they took Arwen to get her cleaned up and measure her size. We saw some black poo-poo on her baby butts and then I realized she had poo-pooed on me!!!! What the heck?! My 2 kids, one pooed in me and the other on me :-P Arwen was 8lb 2.8oz and 18.5 inches long. She's 1 lb heavier than her big sis' birth weight, but also 1 inch shorter. We've got one short and chubby kid, lol.
We are so thrilled to finally have her in our lives, our family is now complete :-)
Friday, July 23, 2010
Noelle's sayings 2
I can't believe I totally forgot to mention this on my previous entry. That's the whole reason I updated, lol. I blame it on my pregnant mommy brain.
Noelle loves to repeat things that she learned. So when she had hard poo-poo one time, we told her that she needs to drink more water, then her poo-poo won't be so hard. So guess what she does now that she goes #2 every time? She says "it's hard poo poo, need to drink more water, poo-poo won't be so hard." LOL, every single time!! And she always looks very serious when she says this, haha.
She loves to ask questions too and I guess that's how she learn and observe. She sees me putting on makeup every morning. At first Noelle said, "Oh no, boo-boo!" I'll tell her it's not boo-boo, it's makeup! Now she plays with two makeup brushes that I gave her and pretends putting on makeup, lol. She also likes to pretend washing her hands at her kitchen set. Of course she'll wash her mouth too, cuz that's usually what we do when we wash her hands at the sink.
Noelle goes to her summer Sunday School with the older kids (ages 2-5) and they watch this DVD series. She now says "sooooo much!" cuz she learns that God loves you soooo much that He listens to your prayers. Or she says it when it means she loves you soooo much.
She's no angel 24/7 tho. Miss Noelle still throws temper tantrum when things don't go her way. She'll say "No! No!" and either hits the things around her or herself. When it gets out of hand, we'll send her to time-out. It's just any corner. She knows she's in trouble and she'll say "no yelling screaming, time-out!" when she gets over her emotions. Now she even sends us to time-out! Yesterday I was throwing something on the ground, not in a mean way or anything, I guess I was just lazy :-P And Noelle saw it said, "No throwing things on ground! Mommy time-out!" LOL We also aren't supposed to hit each other (mommy and daddy, even if we were totally joking around), Noelle will be the police and said "no hitting!"
Ah, I love my silly daughter.
Noelle loves to repeat things that she learned. So when she had hard poo-poo one time, we told her that she needs to drink more water, then her poo-poo won't be so hard. So guess what she does now that she goes #2 every time? She says "it's hard poo poo, need to drink more water, poo-poo won't be so hard." LOL, every single time!! And she always looks very serious when she says this, haha.
She loves to ask questions too and I guess that's how she learn and observe. She sees me putting on makeup every morning. At first Noelle said, "Oh no, boo-boo!" I'll tell her it's not boo-boo, it's makeup! Now she plays with two makeup brushes that I gave her and pretends putting on makeup, lol. She also likes to pretend washing her hands at her kitchen set. Of course she'll wash her mouth too, cuz that's usually what we do when we wash her hands at the sink.
Noelle goes to her summer Sunday School with the older kids (ages 2-5) and they watch this DVD series. She now says "sooooo much!" cuz she learns that God loves you soooo much that He listens to your prayers. Or she says it when it means she loves you soooo much.
She's no angel 24/7 tho. Miss Noelle still throws temper tantrum when things don't go her way. She'll say "No! No!" and either hits the things around her or herself. When it gets out of hand, we'll send her to time-out. It's just any corner. She knows she's in trouble and she'll say "no yelling screaming, time-out!" when she gets over her emotions. Now she even sends us to time-out! Yesterday I was throwing something on the ground, not in a mean way or anything, I guess I was just lazy :-P And Noelle saw it said, "No throwing things on ground! Mommy time-out!" LOL We also aren't supposed to hit each other (mommy and daddy, even if we were totally joking around), Noelle will be the police and said "no hitting!"
Ah, I love my silly daughter.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Noelle's sayings and soon to come little sister
Just to think we used to worry that Noelle is going to be a late talker. She's now talking non-stop and is learning new words/things everyday! Sometimes she'll say something that neither of us have taught her or say to her. Like she'll say "Cool!!!" when she sees something neat, and that totally threw me off the window, lol. I was all like, "Where did you learn that from?!" :-P
It's super sweet when Noelle wakes up in the morning and tells me, "birdies singing!" when she hears the birds chirping outside. :-) Or just seeing her big smiles when I open up my eyes in the morning. Yes, most of the time Miss Noelle wakes up before us (around 6:30). But she doesn't come bug us like she used to do. She'll either lay on her bed or just sitting on the top of our bed (without poking us).
Last week was our church's VBS and even tho Noelle is still a year too young to be attending it, she went to all the singing times and hung out with the college/high school kids. She had a blast! I caught her singing and doing motions to some of the songs, it's the cutest thing. She actually sings the words! I can't wait for her to be part of it next year.
I think Noelle is slowly getting out of her shy self. It usually takes her a while to warm up to people, but it's gotten better these days. She loves her papa (Dave's dad) and always smiles and plays with him whenever she sees him. She had such a good time last night at papa's house that she didn't wanna leave!
Miss Noelle likes to joke around now. And you can totally tell when she's doing that. She'll say something and covers her mouth and says "noooo" while giggling. For example, for some reasons she likes to say "daddy's home" And when I said "no, daddy's still at work, but we'll see him soon." She says "daddy's driving" I say, "yup" Then she says "daddy's driving....milk!" and quickly says "nooooo" (while giggling). It's so odd but very funny. Or she'll pretend not wanting to give you kiss, but in the end she'll come and give you a big kiss. Sometimes she even kisses my arm or shoulders :-P And she can give pretty good massages.
Miss Noelle likes to joke around now. And you can totally tell when she's doing that. She'll say something and covers her mouth and says "noooo" while giggling. For example, for some reasons she likes to say "daddy's home" And when I said "no, daddy's still at work, but we'll see him soon." She says "daddy's driving" I say, "yup" Then she says "daddy's driving....milk!" and quickly says "nooooo" (while giggling). It's so odd but very funny. Or she'll pretend not wanting to give you kiss, but in the end she'll come and give you a big kiss. Sometimes she even kisses my arm or shoulders :-P And she can give pretty good massages.
We worked on the baby room/guest room/office very hard last few weeks and it's coming together rather nicely. Now we uses the changing table for real and it was a nice change, haha. I think it makes it more real for Noelle to see a crib in the room and knowing it's for her little sister. I'm telling her and showing her things that are for "mei-mei" (little sister in Chinese), and hopefully it'll help her to understand having a younger sibling soon.
Potty training on the other hand was a bust. Miss Noelle won't get on her little potty or the kiddie toilet seat, and she refuses to wear pull-ups. My mom said she's going to help us potty train Noelle when she comes (in a few weeks, yay!). So hopefully we can start soon. I think it's just hard that we are going in and out most of the time and it's probably easier if we do it when we are home for a long period of time. Ah, I don't know.
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