Ashley is 10 Month Old Today

I can not believe my little baby is 10 month old already today. In this month, she has gone through a lot of transformations. Everyday she is becoming more more aware of what's going on around her. She is more social, interactive and responsive to what you say to her and what you do with her.

The high lights and milestones of this month are:

1. She is very proficient at crawling and she does it very fast. She can crawl to any where she wants to and pulls everything out that comes along her way. She can grab her toy and carries it with her while she's crawling. And of course she does amazing Yoga posts that all of us adults can not do.





Yoga post #1. Look, I can even do single handed push up. Can you?
















Yoga post #2. Look, I am doing a plank.









2. Pulls at herself to stand. She pulls herself up by the coffee table, by the hand rest of the sofa, and in her crib. She loves to stand and can stand for a long time. She definitely has strong legs.

3. She is very responsive. She waves bye-bye, claps her hands, blows kisses. She automatically waves and smiles at Mommy, Daddy and the nanny every time she sees anyone of us. She waves and smiles at herself whenever she sees herself in the mirror.

4. She loves to clap her hands. She does it when you clap your hands; when she listens to music. She just does it whenever, where ever.

5. She swings/shakes her head, claps her hands when she listens to music. Maybe she'll start dancing soon? :-)

6. She got her very first tooth.

7. She's more accepting of formula.

8. She cuts her naps from 3 a day to 2 a day, and she goes to sleep around 7:30PM and wakes up between 6 AM to 7 AM. Occasionally , she wakes up around 5 AM.

9. She loves to play kissing and giggling game with Mommy.

10. She babbles a lot more. It seems like she wants to tell you something.

11. She is full of energy and is moving and twisting constantly.

Overall, she is just a sweet, calm, cute and angelic baby.



Here are some photos of Ashley during this month.






Having a great time in my carseat.















I got lots of toys!




















Profile. Such a pretty baby!




















Hi Mommy, look, I found a leaf while swimming with Daddy.

Home Alone With Ashley 2 - Part 3

During the weeks that Daddy was gone, little Ashley seems to grow like a little adult. She is aware of what's going on around her.

When she wants to do something bad, she turns around and looks at you as if she is checking if you're looking at her. If you said, "No, Ashley." She smiles and continues to do what she was doing.

When I put her down on her mat and go to kitchen to clean up, she knows to crawl around all the way to the kitchen area, and looks at me and starts babbling as if she was looking for her Mommy.


Daddy got back yesterday. It has been a while since Ashley has seen him, Ashley was a bit of unsure of Daddy at first. She studied and stared at him for a while. She was a little uneasy around him to begin with, but that only lasted a few minutes. After that, she was all smiling and giggling around him.

Michael Jackson Died

Yesterday, June 25th 2009, King of Pop, Michael Jackson died at the age of 50.

What I remember the most about Michael Jackson is his signature moon walk when I saw it on TV the first time when my family moved to US some 20 years ago.

A legend is gone.

Home Alone With Ashley 2 - Part 2

I hadn't gone grocery shopping by myself with Ashley yet. I either go by myself, or AJ comes along with us. At the most, I just went to grab one or two things first if I really had to go by myself with Ashley. But this weekend, I had to do a big grocery shopping with Ashley alone.

It wasn't easy, your attention is split all over the places. You hardly had any time to really look for stuff. All you wanted to do is to get it done as soon as possible before Ashley gets uncomfortable sitting in the car seat and becomes fuzzy. So I just went to grab a bunch of stuff. Didn't really know what I got. Not to mention that the car seat with Ashley sitting in it is getting heavier and heavier. It's pretty tough carrying it downstairs, lifting it up to the shopping cart and then carrying it back up to the condo along with the grocery. Luckily, the grocery shopping was done and finished before Ashley had any chance to get fuzzy. She's a good baby!

What did Daddy miss this week?

Ashley is crawling faster and faster. In a blink of eyes, she's already gone to the hallway from the living room.

She is becoming very good at waving. Everyday I come home, she gets so excited and starts waving at me with both hands. When I leave for work, she waves bye-bye. She waves at herself in the mirror; she waves at the nanny when she comes to work in the morning. When I stand at the back of the car and wave at her, she would wave back while sitting in her car seat in the car.

She finally learned to blow kisses. Every morning when I go to work, I would wave bye-bye and blow kisses at her, she responds with the same thing. She's a little sweetie.

She loves to play kisses on the bed. I would kiss her and then lay down, she crawls over, puts her face on mine and starts kissing Mommy and then lays down on her side waiting for me to move over and kiss her. She's never tired of this game, she's so happy and giggly while playing this game.

She seems get the sense of the music. While the music is playing, I would shake my head and clap my hands, and Ashley copies the same thing. Sometimes, out of blue, she would just start shaking her head and clap her hands herself. She's a cutie.

First Tooth

During Ashley's 9th month checkup, I mentioned to the doctor that Ashley still didn't have any tooth yet. The doctor said to us that it's normal as long as she has 4 teeth by her first 14 months.

"The later the teeth come, the better they are." She comforted me.

Ever since then, every now and then I would check her month, but still there was no sign of any tooth.

Today when I walked in to the house, I asked how Ashley did today. The nanny replied, "She is very good today. She drunk 22 oz of milk already."

"Really??!!! That's great!!!" (Yeah, I know, I know, we have low expectation when it comes to how much Ashley drinks.)

"WOW, Ashley, you're such a good girl!!!" I picked her up and started giving her kisses.

"Well, I have another good news."

"Oh??"

"Ashley got her first tooth!"

"REALLY????!!!" I was pleasantly surprised! I thought she was going to tell me something completely different.

"Ashley, let Mommy look. Where is your tooth?"

I was trying to open Ashley's mouth. Of course she didn't want to cooperate. Finally I was able to ran my finger across her lower gum. Oh yeah, here it goes, I felt it! Ashley finally got her long waited first tooth!

And today Ashley is 9 months and 19 days old.

Home Alone With Ashley 2 - Part 1

Daddy is traveling again and Mommy is once again left with Ashley alone. It's such bad timing this time since Mommy has RTL freeze and chip tapeout coming up and Mommy has been working every night until 12:30 AM or 1 AM the whole week and the weekend. In addition, the nanny's daughter just moved to US and so she can't stay overnight and help on the weekends.

The weekend started pretty good, Ashley was pretty cooperating. She was happy and playful, she ate, played and napped as usual. However, Sunday morning and this morning, for some strange reason, Ashley decided to wake up way early around 5 AM. She probably had a bad nightmare Sunday morning. She woke up crying around 4:30 AM, but soon fell asleep after Mommy patted her. But then it only lasted for an hour, at 5:30AM, she was awake and didn't want to go back to sleep anymore. Poor Mommy with huge headache and less than 5 hours of sleep had to wake up and started the daily routine. This morning, she didn't cry, but still woke up at 5 AM.

Poor Mommy is so exhausted and stressed out. I looked after her while she was awake, and when she was asleep, I was busy working and fixing bugs. I had terrible acne on my face and huge headache. I am hoping she will wake up later tomorrow.

However, it's still worth of all the work. Ashley sort of learned to kiss, well, more like licking. When she and I were playing on the bed, I moved over and kissed her cheeks, she would giggle, it might be funny to her. So she would then crawl over towards me, put her entire face against mine, and opened her mouth and kissed/licked me. My whole face was wet, and she giggled more. It was very sweet and cute. It is at moments like this, all my tiredness and stress all went away, and instead my heart is filled with happiness and joys.

Play Date

Every first Saturday of the month, a group of us young moms and our babies get together for play date. I met these women at the birth & delivery class. At the time, we were all first time expectant moms with big bellies and our due dates were within a month of each other. All our babies were born within several days and if not a couple weeks of each other.

This Saturday was the play date again. Ashley and I usually show up late since Ashley has her afternoon nap around this time. I missed the last couple play dates and wow, babies do grow so fast for the first year; these babies all looked very different and big compared the last time I saw them. Although these babies were born around the similar time, but they each grows at their own pace.

Thomas was the only boy there, and he is no doubt the biggest baby, already reaches 22 lbs at 9 month. He also has 8 teeth! He can't crawl yet, but can sort of moving backward.

Logan probably is the chubbiest baby, 19 lbs at 9 month, big for a girl. She has a lot of hair at birth and her hair grows longer this time, can probably put it in a ponytail. She has no teeth and can't crawl yet.

Zoe is the oldest baby, well toddler, at 1 year old. She is very different than the rest of the gang. She starts to walk, drinks from cups and definitely more vocal.

Ashley is the tiniest baby. She doesn't have any tooth but she probably is the most mobile baby among the three at her age. She impressed other moms by pulling herself from the coffee table standing up. Although all babies are so cute, but selfishly I think she's the cutest baby! :-)







Thomas & Ashley


















Ashley, Logan and Zoe













Ashley was so excited to see all these little babies. She swung her arms, babbled at other babies, crabbed other baby's hands and was all smiling happily. She loved all those new toys and was pretty busy playing with them. She loved the blocks, the balls, the phone and the bucket. And of course, she loved to chew them. She giggled at little silly things such as the bouncing balls and the ringing phone, she was very funny and made everyone there laughed.

By the time we were leaving, Ashley showed off her new learned skill by waving bye-bye to everyone, and when everyone waved back, she kept on waving. Everyone smiled and laughed, it was very sweet and cute.

Play date is definitely fun, not only for babies, but also for moms. It provides a platform for moms to exchange experiences, ideas and supports. Babies also have a lot of fun by hanging out and playing with other babies around their age. I am, and I'm sure Ashley is too, already looking forward to the next play date.

Good Morning

Ashley's crib is at the end of our bed. So everyday she wakes up in the morning, she pulls down the bumper and peeks through the crib and starts babbling. As she gets stronger and stronger, she is able to hold on to the crib and pulls herself up to her knees and eventually to her feet these couple of days.

The other morning, she pulled herself up to her feet, and when she saw us looking at her, she waved her little hand and started babbling as if she was saying "good morning Mommy and Daddy!"

It was SOOO cute!

Little Taster

Ashley is definitely one of the most professional tasters. She can taste any little variation of difference in taste.

She knows the new vitamin tastes different since it has iron added, so she turned her head.

She knows 3 oz of breast milk was added with 1 oz of formula and it didn't taste the same, so she pushed the bottle away.

She knows there is a difference between Similac and Enfamil, so she accepts Similac more than Enfamil. Well, just a little bit more.

She knows although frozen milk smell differently compared to fresh milk, but there are some similarities, and so, she enjoys the frozen milk.

She knows there is a slight sourness in apple, pear, and berry sauces, so she makes the pucker face.

She knows there is a tiny little bit of bitterness in cheese, so she makes this little funny bitter face.

So, Ashley, you definitely can consider taster as one of your possible careers when you grow up.

9 Month Check Up

Today is Ashley's 9 month check up. Her measurements:

Height: 27", 31%
Weight: 17 lb 3.5 oz, 22%
Head: 44 cm, 51%

Sigh, sigh, in conclusion, Ashley is a tiny baby with a big head. It always bothers me that Ashley is tiny, so I always try to feed her more. When I complained to the doctor that she's tiny and asked how I can feed her more. The doctor looked at me and said, "Well, look at yourself. Some baby blends in from both parents, some just takes from one side. Yours takes more after you! And besides, she's very health and grows very well on the chart. Don't force feed her. Babies know when they are full."

Well, the doctor put me to speechless. But but but but geez, who said slim parents have to have tiny babies! Why can't slim parents have chubby babies??!! So unfair! In any cases, the checkup went well. Ashley was playfully and happy at the doctor's office. She was all giggling and playing the whole time. Regardless of her weight, I'm just content that Ashley is a healthy happy baby.


OK, this is what skinny baby looks like during her 9th month.




At Mountain View Art and Wine Festival in my pretty summer dress and hat.













Very focused. I want that remote, I'm crawling to get it!!!













Enjoying the swing.














Completely naked weighing in at the doctor's office for my 9 month measurements.







Ashley's 9 month milestones and highlights.

1. Crawls. Well, more like scooting forward.

2. Pulls herself to her knees, soon she'll be able to pull herself to stand.

3. Still dislikes formula, drinks about less than 3 oz of formula a day. She's a very picky and sensitive baby when it comes to taste. Looks like Mommy still has to keep on pumping.

4. Although she doesn't drink much milk, less than 20 oz a day. But she seems to enjoy solid food. She makes this sour face for any solid food that has a tiny little bit of sour taste.

5. Starts to eat some finger food. She can pick up finger food using her thumb and index finger.

6. Claps her hands while she's playing.

7. She's becoming more talkative. She babbles a lot from time to time while she's playing in the exersaucer or sitting in her chair as if she's having conversations with someone.

8. Stares at and studies any new faces.

Over all, Ashley is a clam and happy baby. She giggles a lot and smiles at random strangers sometime. Soon she'll start walking and become a toddler, but Mommy doesn't want her to grow up so fast. I miss the tiny soft innocent little baby just brought home from the hospital.