Happy New Year!

This is our very first decent photo together as a family.  I'm sure anybody with kids under 3 would agree that it's nearly mission-impossible to have everyone, babies and adults, looking and smiling at the camera simultaneously.  But after numerous tries, we beat the odds and did it albeit a bit late as our Christmas photo cards were already sent.  Oh well...

Year 2010 has been a wonderful year.  I feel truly blessed and thankful for everything, especially for a healthy baby Saria and a loving family.  I will be the first to admit, having a full-time job together with raising 2 kids both under 2 is no easy task.  But Ryan and I have gradually gotten used to the rhythm, chaos and... occasional public embarrassment.  We have each other's back and we feel content just watching both kids learn and grow by the day.

At the beginning of 2010, Lucas was still very much a baby.  He could barely pull himself up and walk a step or two.  He could say "mama", "papa", "nai-nai" (milk), "wo-wo" (dog) but less than 20 words overall.  He could play with simple toys, like his musical table, but almost everything else were just teethers or junk getting moved in-and-out of his toy box.  By the end of the year, not only can the little munchkin walk, he can also run, jump, climb and walk up and down the stairs.   He jabbers all day long and imitates everything Ryan and I do and say -- He loves to hold up our cell phones and pretend to be talking; he likes to type on the laptop and pretend to be surfing the web.  He enjoys reading (especially those Dr. Seuss silly books) and story time with daddy or mommy every night before heading to bed.  He can accurately point out numerous food items, animals, colors and shapes on his word books and pickup new vocabularies through listening to us.  His favorite toys now are clipo blocks and legos after having mastered stackers, sorters, wooden puzzles, etc.  He loves music and often surprises us with funky moves here and there.   The list just goes on.  I wish I can record every single moment as I don't want to miss or forget any bit of my kid's growth.

Besides physical and cognitive development, I find it even more amazing to see Lucas taking after some of our personality traits and gradually evolving into an individual.  He definitely has mama's persistence, daddy's intelligence and our sense of humor.  I'm curious to see how Saria will turn out as she appears to be much more quiet and poise than Lucas was at the same age.  But one thing for sure -- Lucas loves and cares for baby Saria a lot.  He gently rocks the swing when she cries, meticulously wipes her drool with her bib, and generously shares everything with her, including his favorite binkie!

Tonight while we were at a friend's place to celebrate New Year's, Lucas came over to me and repeatedly said "Muimui" (little sister).  At first I thought he was just babbling again.  But then he started walking all over the house as if he was looking for something.  Then I realized he might be looking for Saria who fell asleep earlier and I had brought her into one of the bedrooms.  As soon as I showed him that his little sister was safe, he smiled with relief.  My heart melt.  What a sweet and touching moment to kickoff the new year!

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When a butterfly meets a hamburger...

We went to Bob's pumpkin farm in Half Moon Bay the day before Halloween Sunday.  It was muimui's first Halloween so we decided to take a picture of her sitting on a big pumpkin, exactly like the one we took for Lucas last year!

As for costumes, I went shopping at Old Navy and found two really cute outfits.  Not only were they cute, but they were of good quality (microfleece) and cheap ($10 a piece).  A super bargain over anything anyone can get online or in-store.  And without further adieu, here's a picture of Little Pink Butterfly meeting with Mr. Hamburger:

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Saria is 4 months old!

Keeping this blog up to date is becoming increasingly challenging as Ryan and I can barely survive each day with just a few hours of sleep. But little things captured here are precious memory of Lucas and Saria's childhood, and I know they would have fun reading about them when they get older.  So here I am, blogging at 12:44am on a Saturday night.

A month has gone by since I returned to work full-time.  My daily schedule has been quite hectic and the 2-hour commute does'n't make things any easier.  Every night around 9pm or so when both kids are finally in bed, Ryan and I would finally get to slow down, think about what to eat, briefly chat about our day then off we crash.  But time really goes by fast.  Saria is now 4 months old, losing much of her baby hair yet gaining much weight and awareness of her surroundings.  Here're some health stats from her 4-month well-visit last week:

• Weight: 7.229 kg (15 lb 15 oz) (93%)
• Height: 0.622 m (2' 0.5") (64%)
• Head circ: 42 cm (16.54") (80%)

Compared to Lucas at the same age, Saria is a tiny bit lighter and shorter.  But boys and girls have different growth charts and clearly Saria is on the chubbier side.  She is also looking quite a lot different than before, most notably her double eyelids are finally becoming more visible (and permanent).  Yay!  My "muimui" is so cute!

She's also a lot more alert and curious about everything around her.  She smiles when she sees mama and cries when she knows nobody is nearby . She grabs onto toys and dangling objects, stares at her own mirror reflection with curiosity, and sucks her little thumb to soothe her gums.  Relative to Lucas, she doesn't like tummy time as much and would scream 2-3 mins into the exercise wanting to be flipped over onto her back.  She also isn't as animated as her brother but she's a quiet observer.  She pays attention to her surroundings, studies everything close to her and looks at people in their eyes when they are talking to her.  I have a hunch that muimui will develop a very different personality than Lucas :)

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The magic of time

Happy times really go by fast.  My 3 months of maternity leave is quickly coming to an end.  I don't know if I am ready but I will be returning to work full-time beginning Oct 20.  By then, Lucas will be 18 month old while Saria will be 3 months old.  It feels just like yesterday that I delivered Saria at Kaiser SF.  Here's how much she has changed over 3 months:

Today, Lucas followed his usual routine of wandering around the house and exploring everything remotely interesting.  He dragged baby Saria's infant carseat around and picked up her newborn hat, thinking it was a toy.  As he fiddled around with his "new toy", I suddenly got curious and wondered if he could still fit into that hat.  And haha, here's the answer:

The hat was really really snug and I could barely keep it on for more than a few seconds.  It came off the moment after I snapped the photo.  Not sure if Lucas realized his head was too big for that hat, and his body was too big for the infant carseat.  But if he did, it could well be his first lesson of life -- There's no turning back in time.    

As for mama, I am sure I will miss this wonderful time staying home with my babies.  So guess what, I better start planning my 6 weeks of baby bonding leave.

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Lucas's first potty experience...

It's a little early at 17 months but we decided to let Nanny May start potty training Lucas.  Our goal for now is simple -- Have Lucas get into the routine of sitting on the potty at specific times of the day, like after a meal.  Then at some point when he is ready, he will hopefully pee or poo into the potty.

Last night, we took the froggy potty out and Lucas was extremely interested in the "new toy".  He dragged it along with him in the living room and at one point even sat on it.  Wow, what a wonderful start!

Today marks the official first day of potty training.  But regretfully, I have to declare it a failure as besides some tears, nothing came out of Lucas.

Oh well, it's nothing surprising.  Like learning to bike, it will take many more days of trying (and failing).  But I know very soon I will be able to take a picture with Lucas smiling proudly at the camera, showing me his "success".  Until then...

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Sick child, well child

It's been a while since this blog was updated as the Lum household was busy battling with colds.  We are all finally recovered, thank God!  But looking back, it was two long miserable weeks for everyone!

It all started with Lucas having a runny nose.  Then Ryan began to feel a sore throat, followed by me getting the same and finally, Saria breathing with a congested nose.  It is not fun to be sick.  But as a parent, I now realize nothing is worst than when the kids are sick at the same time.  For us adults, we strive to rest up and drink fluids to get better.  But for kids, they tend to do the opposite --  They have trouble falling and staying asleep, and they refuse all food and water.  Lucas, for example, would only doze off momentarily during the day when he felt extremely tired. It was perhaps the congestion making him uncomfortable so he fought every attempt of us trying to put him down for a nap.  He would not eat anything other than small bites of fruits and sips of water. So his tummy disappeared within a few days.  If we tried to force anything onto him, the end result would be ugly -- An unconsolable toddler crying hysterically and inexorably.  At night, while he could sleep a bit longer he would wake up several times crying, needing comfort and company which meant no sleep for daddy and mommy.  So for more than a week, Ryan and I were dragging our sick bodies to attend to our sick kids, day and night.  Nanny May was of tremendous help during the day, though it was also impossible for her to deal with two needy children alone.  So she and I tagged team during the day, while Ryan and I shared the load at night.  Comparing that with night feedings, waking up just 2 to 3 times to feed and fall right back to sleep feels so much easier all of a sudden. 

After 2 weeks of couping up in the house, Lucas and Saria finally recovered.  Lucas went back to his usual naughty self and I was so glad to see him smiling, running/climbing everywhere and eating like a piggy again.  I decided to bring him out for some fresh air since the weather warmed up a bit that week.  I brought him to Ocean Beach for the first time and boy was the bugger ecstatic seeing so much sand!  Not only did he dig his hands in to play with it, he also dove into it and had his first taste of Ocean Beach sand.

As for Saria, she had her 2 month appointment with Dr. Lee a week ago.  Without further adieu, here are her latest statistics:
Weight: 11 lb 12.5 oz (74%)
Height: 1' 9.85" (28%)  note: The nurse probably made a mistake as this didn't make any sense at all.
Head Circumference: 39.4 cm (67%)

Poor girl also had her first 3 shots, though luckily she did not cry as loud as I thought she would.  All in all, not a bad progress considering she was only around 30th percentile across the board at birth.  At this rate of eating and sleeping though, I suspect she could well beat Lucas's record by 4 months.  We'll see.

Finally, before I forget, here're 2 snaps of my little girl's first real smile @ 8 weeks.  She is such a darling when not screaming and crying bloody murder, hehe!

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Baby naming challenge... Part Deux

Ryan and I have always thought coming up with a girl's name would be easier than coming up with a boy's name.  But we were proven to be wrong once we began the baby name search effort for Saria.  

We started with the middle name first as we had some idea what it should be like. We wanted something similar to Avery, Lucas's middle name; beginning with an A and comprising of our first initials, "R" and "V".  We came across the name Avril, and instantly fell in love with it.  We loved its spelling because it has our family in it -- Not only does it have A, V (Vivian) and R (Ryan), it also has an L (Lucas).  We also loved its meaning.  Avril is the French word for the month of April.  But in the ancient Roman calendar, Avril means "second" as it was originally the second month of the calendar before January and February were added.  Both Ryan and I thought it was a name made for our second child and were sold on it.

Next came the bigger challenge -- The first name.  We did not have any particular name in mind but we had to somehow narrow down our choices.  We first looked at names beginning with an L and names rhyming with Lucas.  We thought it would be cute for the brother and sister to share something in common, either same initials or rhyming names.  But unfortunately, nothing really stood out after browsing through thousands of names on various websites.  Then one day, Ryan asked "What do you think of the name Saria?" (pronounced as SA-REE-AH).  It was a name he came across some time ago while at medical school.  I have never heard of it myself but thought it sounded very cool and girlish.  It was short, simple, yet very unique.  Out of curiosity, I googled its meaning and below was what babynamefacts.com said: 

• Hebrew meaning of the name SARIA for a girl:
  
  • a princess

They also said Ryan means "a little king".  Then another interesting fact was that Saria was a character in the famous video game, The Legend of Zelda: http://zelda.wikia.com/wiki/Saria.  In other words the daughter of Ryan, the "little king" and an aficionado of videogaming, is Saria the cyber princess.  How can mama Viv not love the name!

Here, let me introduce to you our little girl, Saria Avril Lum!

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Happy one month with my two monkeys

Time goes by fast when you're busy taking care of a child.  It goes by doubly fast (and chaotic) when you have two kids and they only have a 15-month age gap.  

The past month has been one of the busiest and most challenging as Ryan and I worked to adapt our lives with the new addition to our family.  Not only did we have to re-adjust ourselves to a new sleep schedule, we also had to somehow make time and energy for our active toddler, Lucas.  There was practically no real start and end to each day, just short breaks here and there if we got lucky with both babies asleep at the same time.  But with all that said, I think overall we were still pretty lucky.  The delivery was smooth and recovery was fast (really fast!)  Ryan's mom was in town to help with Lucas during my hospitalization and 2 weeks after so we could focus on Saria and afford to "power off" every now and then.  And most important of all, Lucas was a sweet big brother with no sign of jealousy at all and Saria was a relatively easy baby.  Phew!  Can't really ask for more to be honest.  

It's amazing to see how much Saria has grown over the past month.  At 4 weeks now, she eats anywhere between 3-4 oz of milk every 2-3 hours, and sleeps soundly the rest of the time.  She has big eyes, a cute little mouth, and a dimple on her left cheek.  She looks different by the day and her neck seems stronger each time I hold her.  Now, I just can't wait for her to be around 3 months old so I can tell who she resembles more.  

As for Lucas, he's 16 months old and has become more communicative and interactive.  He babbles a lot and attempts to repeat words after us.  His favorite words these days are "Apple", "Bubble", "Daddy", "Wo Wo" (i.e. dog).  He points at what he wants, shakes his head to say "No" and follows instructions such as "clean up", "put your friends into the tub" as we go through our daily routines.  He smiles when he sees other kids in the playground and loves to approach and play with them.  At home when he sees Saria, he reaches out to touch and kiss her.  Frankly, I wonder if he knows Saria is his baby sister but his action and sweet-looking face definitely show that he enjoys being a big brother.  

Ryan and I have noticed very early on that Lucas is an observant child.  After coming home from the playground today, I was really hungry and wanted to grab some quick munchies.  Knowing how Lucas would throw a fit seeing me snacking on something he couldn't eat, I decided to hide the bag of "Hello Panda" snack in the pocket of my hoodie.  As I fished for a piece of snack from the plastic bag, Lucas quickly heard the noise and ran over.  I pulled out a handkerchief and asked "Did you want this one?" He shook his head and pointed at my hoodie.  I took out the keys and asked "This one?"  He shook his head again and got a little more frustrated.  Finally, he looked away briefly when nanny May distracted him with a toy.  I took the chance to shuffle another munchie into my mouth.  But just when I started chewing, he turned to me and quickly babbled some words pointing at my mouth!  Haha, sorry Lucas.  When you get older, mama will let you try out those munchies for sure.

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A nice day out at the SF Zoo

Last Wednesday, Ryan and I brought Lucas to the SF Zoo.  We had wanted to bring him there for some time now but we decided to hold off till he could walk better on his own.  With both of us on leave and the little boy showing readiness, we couldn't think of a better time to go than on a free admission day when Ryan's mom was in-town to help us with the little one.  So there, the three of us went and spent a nice afternoon at the zoo.

Lucas was fascinated by everything he saw.  He was interested in not just the hundreds of animals but also, every little fixture, plant and person he ran into along the way!  It was an eye-opening experience for a 15-month old, and a nice break from newborn duties for Ryan and I.  


We will definitely be back again, perhaps together with Saria next time.

Saria is 2 weeks old

Ryan and I took Saria in for her 2 week appointment today.  We have been waiting for the moment of truth as the little girl has been in an eating-and-sleeping spree since her birthday on Jul 21.  And without further adieu, here's her latest statistics: 

Weight: 7lb 10 oz. (compared to 7lb 1 oz. at birth, 6lb 14 oz. at 2 days old)

Height: 20 in.

Head circumference: 35 cm

In terms of percentile, the little girl is right around 30% across the board, a little smaller than brother Lucas when he was 2-weeks old. But nonetheless, Dr. Lee confirmed that she's growing steadily and definitely in good proportion.  So I guess that means she can continue to live like a little piggy until we are told otherwise :)