Cooking Cookies and Fishing at Children's Museum

Jolly Day exhibition is leaving children's museum as holidays are over. We headed there on Friday before Mommy returns to work. Aiden had a lot of fun playing in the holiday kitchen and fishing. He couldn't really get the fish using the fishing pole, so he hooked the fish to the fishing pole directly and told mommy "I got the fish".

1. cook cookies in the oven


2. Chill cookies in the fridge


3. Serve the cookies


4. Cupcake time


5. I got a fish


6. Hooking up the fish

Sibling Time

Aiden and Mia spent a little time on the couch for pictures after they were ready for the trip to children's museum.

1. Bro, hurry up for picture, I am falling


2. Sis, you have really chubby cheek

Mia with Blonde-Hair Doll

Grandparents Li got Mia a big blonde-hair doll from China. She had some "fun" of taking pictures with the doll but at the end she protested and had enough of pictures taken.

1. Social smile



2. staring


3. Mom, what is she looking at?


4. enough for the pictures

Mia at 6-week Old

Mia was 6-week old this Monday. She is getting more and more alert during the day and also at night which Mommy doesn't really "appreciate". She also starts cooing back to us when we talk to her. Once a while she will give us some social smile if she is in the mood and we are lucky. Aiden was much easier to be pleased and smiled more at this age. She is eating well too as you can tell from her big chubby cheek.

Wide Open Eyes

First Snow in 2012

Snow blurry started coming down on evening of New Year Day and when we woke up the next morning, the ground was covered with half inch snow. Aiden put his snow pants and snow boots on and went outside for a walk. We have been reading a book from daycare called "A Snowy Day" before bed and Aiden wanted to make footprints in the snow as the little boy in the book did so.

1. It is bright outside

2. Look at the snow

3. It is cold


4. My footprints


5. Just happy being outside

Mia's First Real Bath

Mia finally got her first real bath in the baby bathtub. Let me tell you that little girl loved her bath and she was really relaxed in the bathtub. Aiden didn't really like his first few baths as he seemed to be scared even though he loves his bath now. Mia also slept better after the first bath, so we are going to give her a warm bath every night to be part of bedtime routine. Aiden also has bath every night as his bedtime routine since he was 1 month old. Last night, when we took Mia out of her bathtub, she cried immediately. I guess the little girl wanted to stay in the warm water longer.

1. Mia's first bath


2. Relax in the bathtub (please ignore all the rolls)

Rock the Baby

Aiden can be a good babysitter for a short period of time. While Mom was getting ready this morning, Mia was crying in the bouncer. Mommy asked Aiden to bounce Mia and calm her down. Aiden did very good job and asked Mommy if he should do "faster, faster". But Mommy told him to be gentle and he slowed down on bouncing.

1. Rocking baby sis


2. lil sis stops crying


3. Picture time again

Christmas Morning

This is our first Christmas as a family of four. This year, Aiden is really into holidays. Aiden was very excited last night as he has been waiting for Santa Claus to bring him Christmas presents. He woke up at 7am on Christmas morning, came to living room and wanted to open the presents right away. But he did wait for Grandpa and Grandma Zeigler to get on skype so that they can see him open his presents. Aiden definitely didn't need help to open most of his presents and know exactly what he was doing. He got quite a few Thomas trains and thomas match games from us. He got alphabets puzzle, cars summer PJ, cars card game and thomas DVD from grandparents. When he saw Annie and Clarabel in the package, he immediately went to his toy box to pull Thomas out as he saw in the books and movies that Annie and Clarabel are the coaches that Thomas pulls. He has been playing his new trains the whole morning. He told us his favorite train was James. Mia also got her first Christmas presents - a sleeping sheep from us and pretty pink dresses and outfits from Grandparents Zeigler. Merry Christmas!!

1. Mia in her pretty hair band from Grandparents Zeigler



2. Aiden opens his first present


3. It is Charlie


4. Look at all my new trains (sorry for the snotty nose)


5. I'm gonna hang Mia's first ornament


6. Ripping off the wrapper

Christmas Eve

It is Mia's first Christmas Eve. Both kids were dressed in Christmas PJ. Aiden did terrific job holding Mia and taking pictures. He was doing everything we were asking him to during picture taken.

Nasty Croup

It has been a tough week for Daddy and Mommy as Aiden came home with fever on Friday evening. Then on Saturday morning, he started the barking seal coughing. We have never heard him coughing like that before so Daddy took him to urgent care that morning and he was diagnosed with croup. Then on Saturday evening, his fever and coughing got really worse. Around 11pm, he woke up from coughing and we checked his temperature and he registered 104 in the ear. He was also breathing really heavily from fever and coughing. So Daddy had to take him to ER that night. They gave him breathing treatment and steroid shot to open his airway. They used x-ray to check his lung and bronchi and didn't see any infection. He was observed for 3 hours that evening and came home around 3am on Sunday morning. Then he was pretty good on Sunday and fever returned around 4:30PM but was only 100.5. So we thought he was ready to go back to daycare soon. Then starting around Monday noon, his fever was back again around 102 and stayed around 101 even with Tylenol and Motrin. We took him to pediatrician's office on Tuesday as his fever has lasted 5 days. We stayed in pediatrician's office for nearly 3 hours as he received another breathing treatment and steroid shot since he was breathing heavily again. We were told to take him back on Wednesday for another follow up and watch his fever. Fortunately he has been fever free since Tuesday afternoon and he didn't need another x-ray on Wednesday afternoon. Doctor said he sounds good and should be on his way to recovery. He still has really bad snotty nose and coughing is more junkier rather than barking. He still wakes up a few times from coughing in the middle of night but much less than last few days. Also his appetite has returned some. He had one piece of pancake for breakfast, a 3/4 cup of mac cheese with broccoli and a few pieces of watermelon for lunch. His energy level is also pretty good as he starts running around the house and jump up and down as usual.

1. Another day of fever free and happy

Mia is One Month Old

One month has flied by. Mia is getting heavier and longer every day. We didn't have one month check up as she gained weight nicely for 1-week and 2-week check up. Her next check up will be 2-month check up. It seems she will outgrow the bassinet faster than Aiden did as she already looks pretty big in it. She is quite demanding sometimes and wants a lot of attentions. Daddy has been thinking about pacifier but Mommy is still holding off on that as Aiden was very addictive to sucking the pacifier and even interfered with his feeding. Mia also likes to suck to calm herself down. Once a while, she found her own fingers to suck on and got really mad when she lost them. Her feeding is good and usually wants to eat every 3 hours but sometimes she wants to eat every 2 hours. Her sleeping during the day is decent usually a couple of hours for each nap. She sleeps well and soundly from 11pm to 3am and up for feeding. Then after 3am until 7am, she stirs a lot during sleep then she sleeps really tight again between 7am and 9am. Hopefully her sleeping will get better. She starts to focus on and track moving objects. Mommy moved her fingers in front of her face from side to side and she followed along with movement. Her current skin condition is much better than Aiden's at 1 month old. Aiden had terrible baby acne breakout at 1 month old. Mia only has some little white bumps on her nose and face which is called milia. Mia hasn't really smiled at us yet while awake but she does give us some cute little smiles while sleeping.

1. Stretching after nap


2. Stop flashing me

3. Hmm, I am thinking

4. What are you looking at?

Aiden Adores His Lil Sister

Did I say enough about how much Aiden likes his lil sister Mia? He loves to take picture together with Mia. He runs to her immediately when he hears she cries and gives her "attention". This morning, when I dropped him off at daycare, other boys in his room ran to Mia's car seat and Aiden rushed to her side and told other boys "it is MY baby!!". What a protective big brother!!

Christmas Tree Decoration

We got a new Christmas tree this year. Aiden was very excited when Daddy put the tree up. On Sunday morning, he helped Mommy take out all the ornaments and put a few of them on the tree including his favorite-Thomas ornament. He doesn't fully understand the ornaments are for decorations not toys. He will be really happy to see all the presents under the tree on Christmas morning.

Graduation from Soccer Fall Session

Aiden finished his fall session soccer last Saturday. He got a graduation card. He will still stay in the same age group (2.5-3.5 years old) for winter session as he is not quite ready for next group which doesn't have parents' company. He is doing well with soccer but still needs quite a bit improvement in following instructions. But per Dad, he did fairly decent job for the first class of winter session this Saturday.

1. Waiting to get his graduation card

2. Check out my card

3. Yay! I "graduate"

Mia found her fingers

Mia really loves to be nursed to go to sleep or suck on something to fall asleep. We didn't get her a pacifier as it was difficult to get Aiden off the pacifier when he was around 4 months old. Aiden refused to take the bottle unless we let him suck on the pacifier for a little bit. So we are trying not to offer Mia pacifier. But lil girl has found her own fingers to suck on sometimes.