Occasional water play

One trick for entertaining Evan, after all else has failed, is to give him a few cups and some water to play with. The water will eventually end up either on him or the floor, so we don't do this often.

Today at dinner time I gave him some water to play with in the high chair. He was so happy, pouring the half inch of water from one cup to another. He has also started doing this thing of holding his straw cup (usually full of milk) upside down and watching the milk come out one drop at a time. So today he ended up with this watered down milk that eventually Nathan started playing with as well and even drank (so gross).

Evan also enjoys drinking from a real cup/bowl, and insists on holding it himself. Every time I let him I end up regretting because he all the water just drips out of his mouth and onto his shirt. Watching him do that today I had this flashback of barbaric periods in Chinese history (such as 三国演义). Men would drink liquor using bowls, and when they would try to drink the whole thing in one gulp, so it looks like they're just pouring liquid onto their shirts. I always thought it was silly, but at least that's how all the TV shows portrayed it. Anyways, it was an amusing thought because Evan's drinking from a cup is exactly like that.

Delayed gratification

At lunch today I was talking to a coworker about a well-known experiment about instant vs. delayed gratification in kids. Basically, give the child a piece of candy, and tell them that if they wait until tomorrow to eat the candy, then they will get another piece of candy. But if they eat it today, they well get nothing. I believe the study showed that those kids that decided to keep the candy, ended up being more disciplined in life later, getting higher SAT scores, being better savers blah blah.

(I have yet to try this experiment on Nathan, scared of what I will find out...)

But with Evan, I can already predict that he will be a "saver". Whenever he's given some food that he really likes, he will hold onto the last piece. The other day he was walking around with this half piece of gummy bear in his hand for the longest time. He would even bring it to his mouth, but then decide not to have it quite yet. It's so funny to watch.

2nd Halloween

This Halloween little Evan dressed up as Robin (because Nathan was Batman). Evan didn't care too much about the costumes and candy bars, but he did enjoy some special treats. Here he's eating a "moon" shaped cookie at Googleween party.

Brushing teeth

James jokes about Evan becoming a dentist because how much he like to brush his teeth. It's part of his morning and evening ritual now. Whenever he sees us (especially Nathan) brushing our teeth, he has to have his tooth brush as well. I guess at this stage it's more just chewing on the toothbrush than actual brushing, but it's still forming a good habit.

Remotes

For James' birthday, I got him a universal remote. He's been dreaming about a universal remote for years now, but I think Evan's the one who pushed him over the edge. Evan likes pressing buttons on remotes and even points them in the right direction when he's doing it. As a result, we often find our amp and Tv in rather obscure states. Sometimes we just can't find a remote period because Evan's "hid" it somewhere.

So, after getting the universal remote (which was about 2 weeks ago), James kept all the old remotes in the front room, where Evan doesn't have access to regularly. Today, however, as I was cleaning up the front room, Evan got a chance to walk around and voila, there were the long gone remotes! He was so excited he grabbed the DVD remote and "ran" out of the room with it babbling something to himself. We followed him to see where he was heading, and to our surprise he went straight for the toilet and was about throw the remote into it!

YueYa

That's what Evan calls the moon. Instead of YueLiang, he says YueYa, with the correct 4th tone it sounds quite cute. When we're carrying him, he often points to the door and go "YueYa" to indication he wants to go outside. It brings a smile to his face whenever he gets to sees the real moon. He's starting to get into books too, "Goodnight moon" and "Goodnight Gorilla" (a moon on almost every page) being his favorite.

My baby is so cute...

... a random stranger asked to take a photo of Evan the other day! Afterwards James was suspecting "Catfish", but I was just all smug about Evan's cuteness. (Moms are blind...)

Cupboards, doors, and drawers

Evan's been into all of those for a while but it's harder to keep him out of things now. In the kitchen we have one cupboard that's not baby proofed, so Evan has claimed it as his. He likes taking things in and out. Sometimes when he finds a new toy, he'll go to his cupboard and hide it there. Does that with food sometimes too, quite funny. I worry that one day we'll find a half open jar of yogurt that's been stashed somewhere for weeks, but luckily that hasn't happened yet =)

Kiss Kiss

Evan's way of giving a kiss is to slowly lean forward, and just let gravity take it's toll and land on who/what ever he's trying to kiss, usually leaving a big wet drool mark behind. He likes to kiss a few stuffed animals, and if in the mood will respond to my requests for "kiss kiss". He has a sense of fairness. If mommy gets a kiss, then must give daddy one as well.

First overseas trip

It was a real treat getting to spend 3 whole weeks with Evan on our trip to NZ and Australia. He's at such an adorable age right now. Even though he's always friendly, loves to wave and say "hi" to anybody we meet (at airports, in grocery stores, etc), he's actually quite picky about who can hold him. So on this trip, I ended up carrying him most of the time, and because of that he's gotten even clingier than before (which I don't mind of course).

This is Evan's first time flying and he did amazingly well. On the way to NZ (13 hrs) he slept in James' arms most of the time. On the way back we decided to try him in the bassinet that airline provides. He was a bit too tall for it and both his head and feet where actually sticking out the ends a bit, but he was able to sleep in it for almost 8 hours. During his waking hours, we managed to entertain him by feeding him and letting him play with the remote controls. He was particularly interested in the "fasten seatbelt" lights. He also liked opening and closing the window shades. Luckily he didn't mind much giving Nathan the window seat. The most challenging part for all the flights that we went on was at luggage pickup. Evan was fascinated by all the conveyer belts and kept wanting to climb onto them!

Evan became much better at walking on this trip. He likes to challenge himself by going on ramps and uneven surfaces, resulting in frequent falls. I think a good half of the trip he had this big purple bruise on his head. He *loved* the stairs at Nana's house. We had to keep a close eye on him the whole time since their house is not baby proof anymore, and any change Evan gets he'd either be climbing the stairs, or reaching for the toilet water! He did get plenty of water play in Australia since the resort we stayed at had baby friendly kiddy pools. Evan was a little afraid first time in the water but quickly got used to it. Now whenever he sees a pool of water he just wants to dive in, which worries me a bit...

It was a bit challenging finding things that Evan would eat on the trip. He got a bad case of diarrhea for several days and we still don't know the cause (we even switched to soy milk thinking maybe he's not used to the cow milk). He lived on a yogurt and banana only diet for a while, and we had to make sure any where we went, there's always yogurt and banana.

With two kids it usually takes us forever to get ready every morning, usually by the time we arrive at our destination, Evan would be asleep in the carseat/stroller. So Even slept through a good chunk of the "exciting" stuff on the trip. I don't think he minded though. He's usually happy out and about anywhere we go.

1 year

A few months ago a friend asked me what my favorite "stage" with Nathan was. It got me thinking, and my conclusion is that around 1 year is what I like the most, which means I should really treasure every single day with Evan!

Evan turned 1 almost a month ago (and the fact that I didn't get a chance to blog about it until now is something I feel terribly guilty about). He is becoming more social and can communicate basic needs now (such as signs for "milk" and "more"). He's quite a cutie and social butterfly. Loves to smile, wave, play peekaboo and blow kisses.

There are so many things I love about Evan the 1 year old, here are my top 10:

10. You like to do face plants into the floor/carpet, especially when you're tired. Sometimes you'd hit the floor so hard it leaves a red mark on the forehead.

9. Shaking your head left and right (with your eyes rolling all over the place). I still haven't figured out why you do it yet, perhaps to invite play, or maybe you just like the dizzy feeling?

8. When ever a car engine starts, you'd start waving "bye-bye"
7. How you love dogs and getting licked in the face by them

6. When you first started walking, you hadn't learned to bend your knees yet, so looked like a little mummy with straight legs and straight arms raised high above your head for balance.

5. Your favorite sound is "nuo". I think it mean "want" in Chinese, but not 100% sure yet. You call the move "yaya", and light "dada".

4. You shove sand in your mouth sometimes just to spite me.

3. It's easy to tell when you're full, cuz you start doing gravity experiments by dropping pieces of food from your high chair and watch where they land.

2. After drinking something tasty, you'd let out a satisfying sigh "Ah..." just to get our reaction and it works every time!

1. When you get excited you start panting like a dog =)

For Evan's 1st birthday we had some friends overfor bbq. Evan enjoys company as usually and we did Chinese game of picking a career, which is really more for the grownups amusement. Evan was very decisive and went for a paint brush. Do we have a little artist in the making? I guess only time can tell

Lastly the stats

Height: 2'8" (90%)

Weight: 22lb 13oz (50%)

HC: 47cm (70%)

Free standing

It's been interesting watching Evan learn to stand. He is super cautious. He'd very slowly go from sitting to squatting, to standing up, as if in slow motion. He can stand by himself for almost 5 seconds now before slowing lowering himself back to sitting position again. Such controlled movements, it's like watching Tai-chi.

Pizza night

Nathan's friend Amelie came over Saturday night and we decided to have the kids help make pizza. Nathan was only interested in using the standmixer to make the dough (since there's plugs and switches involved). Amelie was more into rolling out the dough and putting on the toppings. But once the kids had a taste of the cheese and pizza sauce, it was over. They started stuffing their face with hand fulls of cheese, combined with spoonfuls of pizza sauce, and were full before the pizza went in the oven!

"da" for 灯灯

Evan likes lights, surprise surprise. He fascination for lights started with ceiling light in my car. It usually turns on when we open the car door, and he would smile and coo at it the whole time I'm trying to strap him into the car seat. Now he's started mumbling "da-a-da-da-a-da" a lot. At first I thought he's saying daddy, but he's actually saying the Chinese for lights. When ever we go to a new place, the first thing he'll check out are the lights in the ceiling.

Keeping and eye on Evan just got a lot harder

Looks like our laziest baby in the world has finally decided to get off his butt. In the last couple weeks, he's surprised us a couple of times by popping up in places that we didn't expect him to be. Most of the time he's still pretty happy sitting and staying put, but if he sees something of interest (like the stereo cabinet door open) then off he goes. He's super quick at crawling now but hasn't figured out that he move arms and legs together. He'd lift his body and throw both arms forward at the same time, slapping them on the floor in front of him ("thud") and then pull the legs forward one at a time ("scoot scoot"). So the rhythm goes "thud, scoot scoot, thud, scoot scoot", quite cute.

He's also managed to pull himself to standing a few times now, though I keep missing how he actually does it. A few times I've put him in his crib so I can go chase Nathan around, and when I come back I see Evan happily standing there holding onto the side of the crib.

Hives

We had quite a scare last month when Evan mysteriously developed all these red spots on his face, legs and arms. We're still not sure whether it was allergies or viral (doctor thinks the latter). Poor guy looked like a 赤豆粽子 for several days, but it didn't seem to cause any itching or discomfort. The only new food that we introduced before then was mango, but lots of it because he loved it so much. I think he must have eaten half a mango everyday day for 3 days straight.

Scoot scoot

I spent the last week at home with Evan and really enjoyed spending more time just two of us. He's quickly becoming a "mama's boy" and often gives me this "no you're abandoning me!" look if I give him to somebody else to hold. It means more work for me (tired arms) but it's also nice to know that he knows me.

I always tell people that Evan is the laziest baby ever. At 8 1/2 months, he has just started showing interest in moving around. Starting from a sitting position, he will lean forward onto his hands and lift bum up a little off the floor, but not too much and eventually come back to sitting position. Even though he hasn't figured out crawling yet, he's manage to scoot on his butt and push/slide his way around. On slippery hardwood floors he can actually move around pretty quickly and end up in rather random places. I he accidentally end up face down on his belly he starts crying right away for help. I give it 2 more weeks before he really starts being mobile and that's when we'll need to start baby proofing all over again.

Just like his older brother, Evan has become very interested in light switches. His favorite one is our hallway light switch, which has a night light built in. I've been showing him how to turn it on/off by guiding his fist where to press, and the expression he gives when he succeeds is pure bliss. He also likes to clap his hands together. Sarah has also taught him to wave, but seems to enjoy waving to himself (in the mirror) more than anybody else.

Solids

Evan has been having solids (which is really just mush at this stage) for over 2 months now. He loves it and can usually finish any amount we give him. There was once he ate 2 full jars of baby food. I felt kinda bad for him at the end because he looked so stuffed but if he wants more, I can't say no.
He gets really impatient when it comes to eating. He'd usually open his mouth wide and wait for the next spoonful before swallowing the first one.
Another funny thing is Nathan is wanting to eat some of Evan's baby food, so I find myself spoon feeding 2 babies now. Evan gets even more anxious then.
Cheerios has been another big hit. He's slowly learning to pick them up but most of them time they end up in his fist / stuck to his hand (no grasping using fingers yet). So normally I just put them in his mouth one at a time. Nathan likes to feed Evan cheerios too. In the same time that it takes for Evan to eat 1 cheerio, Nathan can probably finish the whole tray.

Jealousy

We used to worry that Nathan would get jealous of his little brother, but one incident a few days ago is proving us wrong. Turns out Evan is the one we need to watch out for!
According to James, having just had his morning bath Nathan was running around the house naked when Sarah arrived that day. Normally Sarah would go straight to Evan (and that's probably what he was expecting), but this day Sarah helped Nathan get dressed first, and Evan starting throwing a fit. Poor Evan, sorry you have to learn to share so early.

"mama"

Evan got a bad cold a couple of weeks ago and was quite miserable for several days. He surprised us though by starting to call for "mamamama". He only wanted me to hold him when he was most miserable, but once he got better, no more "mama"s either.

Out of order

Yesterday when I was letting Evan chew on my finger, I discovered the tip of another 2 teeth coming through. But shockingly it was two side teeth instead of the middle ones which are still missing. So now Evan's mouth looks like:

x--x
-xx-

(Does not equal to a row of perfectly aligned teeth though: xxxx).

Teeth

After almost 2 months of non-stop drooling, Evan's first tooth came through last Sunday. It's so tiny that it's almost impossible to see. I only found out it was there by accident when he was chewing on my finger. James and I were so excited we jumped up and down. Nathan didn't quite understand what the excitement was all about but joined in the celebration anyway. He wanted to feel Evan's tooth as well but just wanted up poking Evan in the face. Evan enjoyed the attention though and we're all glad his teething pains and over (for now).

His other bottom tooth was soon to follow, appearing just a few days later. This last week we've also gone full speed in trying new solids. He's had carrots (loved), apples (not so much), and sweet potatoes (starting to enjoy).

Perfectly proportioned

Evan turned 6 months last Wednesday, yay! At the doctor's visit I was surprised to find out that he was 75% for all 3 measurements. A perfectly proportioned baby?!

Head circumference: 44.5 cm
Height: 27 1/4 inches
Weight: 18 lbs 13 oz

We also started him on his first vegetable: peas. James gave him half a container at first but he wanted more and ended up eating the whole thing. Good thing Dr.Brown reminded us about introducing new foods 3 days apart (and watch for allergies). I had totally forgotten about that.

Dr.Brown also suggested that it's better to start sleep training sooner than later, and having failed at it once with Nathan, I know it to be true. One thing that worries be a bit is that Evan is still waking up a couple times a night for a feed. He's been sleeping next to me at night, and whenever he wakes up, I usually just feed him without even getting out of bed. He's getting so used to falling asleep nursing that I'm afraid it might be the only way he knows how to go to sleep.

Sarah has had quite a few successes getting Evan to fall asleep by himself in the day, but night time is hard since we have a crazy Nathan in the house. Nathan doesn't go to bed till at least 8:30pm, so Evan ends up staying up as well and is often overtired by then. James has gotten very skilled at getting Evan to fall asleep on his shoulder.

Today I was determined to start sleep training, and it wasn't that bad. Maybe 5 minutes of crying at most?! I sat in the dark with Evan as he lay by himself in the crib. I don't think he knows I'm there, otherwise he'd probably cry even more. He protested a bit but soon found his fingers.

First Christmas

Evan's first Christmas came and went before we knew it. I was still on maternity leave till end of November, so had plenty of time to prepare for the holidays. We put up our Christmas tree early this year and enjoyed it for almost a whole month.

Evan got given several stuffed cow toys, since he's born year of the ox. I realized the other day that we might have a problem. I've been collecting piggies for years, way before Nathan came along, but Evan is not going to believe that. He's going to think all the pigs were because Nathan was born year of the pig. So to avoid future sibling rivalry, I need to start accumulating cows, fast.

Another thing I noticed is that in almost every other photo, Evan would be getting kisses. I feel that I'm much more liberal with the kissing than when Nathan was at baby, and observed same behavior in James. Perhaps it's because Nathan no longer lets us shower him with kisses, so we're taking advantage of Evan while he can't protest yet. Plus he's pretty adorable too =)

Do you know who I am?

"Do you know who I am?" said the mother bird.
"Yes, you are a bird, and you are my mother!" said the baby bird.

These familiar lines are from the"Are you my mother?" book, and I can really relate to them right now. At almost 6 months, Evan is starting to pay extra attention to mommy and it makes me feel pretty darn special. Sometimes I'll look up and see him staring at me from across the room. When our eyes meet he'll give me a big fat smile. On the other hand, there are also cases when he'll be perfectly happy being held by someone else, but once he sees me, he'll start crying immediately and demand be fed. James says it's like seeing an ice-cream truck walk by.

There's also a Chinese saying that when a mom's hair starts falling out, that's when her baby will start recognizing her. Well I'm finding hair all over our floor these days, so Evan you better know who I am =)

P.S., Evan quietly sat on my lap as I finish this blog entry. He looks curiously at the keyboard and occasionally back at me.