Ashley's 1 Year Checkup

Head: 44.9 CM, 45 Percentile
Height: 28 3/4 inches, 39 Percentile
Weight: 19 lb 3 oz, 20 Percentile


Ashley is on the tiny side, but we're very happy that she's very healthy.

Highlights of this month.

1. She understands words

2. She can stand without support for a few seconds.

3. She can walk while holding onto any furniture.

4. She points to everything.

5. She babbles a lot, mostly just baby talk.


A picture is worth of thousand words. Here are some photo of Ashley this month.






Little ballerina in practice.
























Hanging out with Mommy by the swimming pool.















Sharing my toys with Cerisa.


















Got caught emptying baskets.























Having fun bouncing up and down in the door jumper.























Yeah, I found my bear!
























With Mommy at Cerisa's birthday party.

















Bonding with Daddy.
























Family photo at Cerisa's birthday party























In my pretty dress for my birthday.
























Another shot in the birthday dress.























In the birthday crown.
























Family photo at my birthday.
























My first birthday cake!

























Look at all these gifts I got!

A Year In Memory

In a blink of eyes, a year of time slips through the fingers just like running water does.

It wasn't long ago, little Ashley barely fitted in her car seat that we had to use 3 extra towels as padding, nowadays her legs just dangling from the car seat. It wasn't long ago, she couldn't do much besides laying there spending her time looking around, and then she was able to lay on her tummy, to pull herself up from lying position, to roll around, to sit up, to crawl around, and then to cruise around. It wasn't long ago, it was safe to just lay her down on the sofa, and walked away to do your own stuff, and nowadays she is so active that you have to keep your eyes on her constantly and changing diapers becoming fighting a battle.

What strikes me the most about Ashley is that she is so calm, happy, joyful, and sweet. She is a baby born with a smile imprinted on her face.

In the first week after she was born, Mommy and PoPo swore that she could already smile while we held her. Although Daddy insisted that was involuntary muscle movements, yet Mommy believed that her little angel was just as happy to be surrounded and held by her loved ones.

She puts on the brightest sunshine smile every time you go to pick her up from her crib after she wakes up as if she hasn't seen you for ages. She had this most satisfied smile every time after she was breastfed; Mommy knew she was content with a full happy stomach.

The very first time she burst out laughing, swinging her arms and kicking her legs, was at the silly chicken and duck sounds Mommy and Daddy made. From that moment on, we knew she loves to laugh and whether she realizes or not she has brought so many laughter and joys to Mommy and Daddy.

As she grows bigger and bigger, she laughs and smiles at everything. She laughs when you play peek-a-boo with her; she laughs when you tickle her underarms and her body; she laughs when you kiss her; she laughs when you put her on the swing and push her up and down; she laughs when you toss her high in the air; she laughs when she crawls so fast that you can't keep up with her; she laughs when she gets to splash water in her bath, in the swimming pool and on her tray.

She smiles at you when she gets anything she isn't supposed to; she sometimes smiles after she is fed; she smiles and waves at strangers although that depends on her mood; she smiles and shakes her body automatically every time her toys play music; she smiles when you give her the teddy bears and her blanket; she smiles after she fetches her ball, finds the cat and the dog hidden beyond the doors on her toy; she smiles after you let her bang on the computer keyboard; she smiles when she kisses her teddy bears, her blanket, her ball; she smiles every time she sees herself at mirror.

Often, Ashley he is just as happy to play by herself on the playmat, in the exersaucer, on the bouncy chair, in her stroller. She is content to just sit and lay there and observes all those new things and new people. She never fuzzes every time we go out. She waves and smiles at the cashier, at the waiters, at the doctors and nurses, and at some random people sometime. She loves little babies and kids, and smiles at them whenever she sees them. She instantly spreads the happiness to everyone and captures everyone's heart.

Ashley's heart is filled with bountiful happiness and joy. To her, everything is brushed with honey and smelled like a bright red rose. Every person is like her dearest friend although she might have stranger anxiety at the beginning, just give her 10 minutes and she will love you as if she has known you for a long time. Every action she does, or you do with/to her is like shooting to the moon; it makes her so happy and excited that she often screams in joy, swings her arms and kicks her legs.

What is Ashley to Mommy then?

She is a ray of sunshine through the darkest thickest cloud.
She is a cup of hot chocolate in the chilly rainy day.
She is the purest morning dew on a blooming flower petal.
She is the first bud of spring leaf after a long cold winter season.
She is a breath of fresh air in the hot humid summer heat.
She is the fire in the freezing snowy winter night.
She is the wind beneath my wings.

She truly has brought 365 days each filled with happiness and joy to Mommy, and there are many many more to come.

With that said, my little sweet angel turns 1 year old today. She is no longer an infant, she is now a big toddler.






Ashley at birth.




















Ashley at 1 year old




















Happy Birthday to my little angel!

Home Alone With Ashley 3

Once again, Daddy is away for business trip during this week!

Last Saturday, Autie Susan came to visit and hung out with us. Ashley wasn't shy nor did she show any sign of stranger anxiety. It only took her about 5 minutes or so to warm up and she was having lots of fun playing with Autie Susan. Mommy even got to slip away to pump for 20 minutes and Ashley didn't even fuzz!

Sunday, Mommy took Ashley to visit Autie JW and her new baby girl. JW's baby girl is just over 2 months old and she also has a 5 year old daughter Kathy. Kathy loves Ashley and Ashley loves to play with Kathy. Ashley was even curious about the little baby and wanted to pull herself up by the stroller to check out the baby. I guess kids/babies just love each other. Ashley had a lot of fun crawling around and playing with Kathy. She got a new toy from Autie JW and Kathy and it plays music. Ashley automatically bounced her body when she heard the music playing. It cracked everyone up.

One morning while Mommy was laying around on the floor after feeding Ashley, Ashley crawled over and laid next to Mommy. All the sudden, Mommy heard Ashley screamed in excitement, it took several seconds for Mommy to look up. And Mommy saw Ashley standing next to Mommy without any support! Somehow she managed to pull herself up from laying position. It might last for at least 10 seconds! Mommy was very impressed.

The nanny discovered the club house from the apartment complex across from us. She has been taking Ashley there in the afternoon to play. There are 4 little toddlers that meet there regularly. Apparently Ashley has a lot crawling around following and playing with other kids

Overall, Ashley was a good baby this week. She went to sleep about 8PM and woke up between 6:30 AM to 7 AM everyday except one night she woke up crying after she slept for 2 hours and it took her 1 hour to fall back to sleep after Mommy comforting her.

Daddy is coming back tomorrow just in time for Ashley's first birthday!

Birth of Ashley 4

Ashley's first birthday is coming up this Sunday, I'd better finish her birth story! :-)

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Once I decided to go for C-section, the nurse started preparing me and AJ for the operation room. I signed whole bunch of paperwork, and AJ was putted on the blue medical suit. I was pretty calm at this moment, the nurse said to me, "You handle it much better than a lot of people." Well, what else could I do? I remember telling AJ to make sure to bring the camera and the camcorder, and told him to follow the baby if they took him/her outside of operation room.

They packed all our belongings underneath the patient's bed and pushed me to the operating room, and here I was in the operation room about to be cut open! They told AJ to wait outside until they settled everything, I don't remember when he was allowed to come in. I was transferred to another bed. They asked me to stretch both of my arms out and tied my arms down on the bench to prevent me from moving. I felt like a pig getting ready to be butchered. The anesthesiologist started to give me local anesthesia while the nurse started to sanitize me.

Soon after, the anesthesiologist told me that he was going to poke me and asked me to let him know if I could feel anything. He started from the leg, to the hip, to the tummy, to the mid body, to the chest, to the shoulder, and finally it was around my neck that I started to feel a little bit. I remembered from the birth class that for local anesthesia, you were supposed not to feel anything from chest down, but I could not feel anything from the neck, and I thought to myself that maybe it was too much anesthesia?

For some reason, the nerves kicked in and my whole body started to shake uncontrollably, I screamed, "I'm shaking!!" the nurse and the doctor tried to calm me down by saying that it was due to the anesthesia and the hormone from the labor and it was normal. Soon the attending physician, pediatrician, pediatrician's nurse, my doctor's assistants all came in, there were probably about 9 doctors/nurses in the room. The surgery was about to start.

Then I heard the attending physician asked AJ, "when the baby is about to come out, do you want me to let you know, so that you can stand up and take some pictures?" AJ replied right away, "No, thanks, I'll stay on this side." We had this discussion before and he didn't want to see any bloody scenes, he's a south side kind of guy. "Oh ok, then pass me the camera and I'll take some photos for you!" The attending physician offered. He did indeed take some priceless photos.

Next I heard my doctor said to me, "We're going to make an incision and you might feel some tingling." Well, I could not feel anything at all. My body was shaking harder and harder, I screamed, "I'm shaking very badly!" Someone then told me to focus on something else, but really how could I? The shaking continued and then slowly I felt I couldn't breathe, so I screamed again, "I can't breathe!" The attending physical then told me that they were monitoring the oxygen intake and everything looked fine. But I still felt that I was having hard time breathing. I bet it was probably the overdosed of anesthesia that numbed my lungs. I truly believed it was due to that, I later vomited all the food my mom made me eat while in the operation room. Now I know why they tell you not to eat anything before the labor!

Then I started to feel sleeping and started to falling asleep. But wait! I remembered from the birth class that local anesthesia during the C-section was not supposed to put you to sleep and you were supposed to stay awake when the baby is born. I bet it was the overdosed of anesthesia that's making me sleepy! I wanted to stay awake for the birth of baby, so I screamed one more time, "I'm falling asleep! I'm falling asleep!!"

The attending physician wanted to keep me await for the magic moment, so he started to ask me a bunch of questions so that I could stay awake. "Where are you from?" "Are any of your family here?" "How did you stay in shape while you are pregnant? ..... I struggled fighting the sleeping bugs and tried to answer those questions. I had to thank him for trying so hard to keep me awake though!

"Ok, we're going to press on your tummy to get the baby out. You might feel some pressure on your tummy." My doctor said to me again. Well, I could hardly feel anything. Several seconds later, I heard some crying! And the doctor said, "Dad, you wanna tell mom what you have?" We didn't find out the gender of the baby while I was pregnant, I wanted a surprise. "It's a girl!" It was a surprise indeed. Either way would be a pleasant surprise.

While they cleaned up the baby, my doctor said, "Oh, look that's why the baby wasn't handling the labor! Her umbilical cord was tied in a knot!! And it wrapped around her neck twice!" Geez, this could have turned very bad, baby with umbilical cord tied in a knot can not be born virginally. She must been doing a lot of gymnastic inside my tummy! Had I known about this, I couldn't come back home the very first time I came to the hospital; I couldn't go to the airport! Instead, I could have stayed in the hospital the first time we came. Luckily, everything turned out OK! It was definitely a right choice to do C-section

A few minutes later, after they cleaned and weighed the baby, AJ brought the baby to me. It was the most magical moment of my life, everything else just seemed to disappear, all the pain and tiredness just went away and the time just seemed to be frozen, I would never ever forget this moment.

Here she is, the baby I had waited for 10 months; the baby that I felt in love the very first time I saw her heart beat on the ultrasound; the baby that has been kicking around for months inside of my tummy! At the very first second we saw each other, she locked her eyes with mine, she knew who her mother is! She was still crying loudly, yes, she got very healthy lungs! I started mumbling, "Hi peanut! It's ok, it's ok, everything is ok, mommy is here...." Her eyes never moved away from me. She is such a very beautiful healthy baby! Baby wrinkle? Not this baby! Her skin is as smooth as silk. Pale purple looking baby? Not this baby! She's so pink and glowing! She's the most perfect gorgeous angelic baby!

I kept on staring the baby, and then I turned my head and said to AJ, "Oh, she got your skin!" To my surprise, I saw some watery eyes on AJ. Really, this is a guy who hardly shows any of his emotions at all, a big 6 foot 2 inch guy. This must really mean something to him. I would never forget this. It's imprinted in my memory!

So, here we were, a week earlier than her due date, after more than 24 hours of labor and a very eventful day, and some scares here and there, we welcomed our beautiful and healthy baby, Ashley. She was born at 6:35 PM, August 30th, 2008, measured 19.5 inch and weighed 7lb 3oz.

Welcome to the wonderful world, Ashley!

Blanket / Pointing / Words / Kissing / Shadow

In the last couple of days, we noticed that Ashley loves her blanket. Every time she sees her blanket her face lights up and she starts to smile. The very first second she sees her blanket, she automatically sucks her thumb even before we give her the blanket. It doesn't have to be her blanket, any kind of blanket we give her, she sucks her thumb right away.

Of course Mommy and Daddy seize to this opportunity. Every time she doesn't want to drink her milk, we bring out her blanket, she sucks her thumb and we put in the bottle. It works so far!

Knock, knock, knock ... on the wood thousands of times!!!!


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Ashley loves to point at everything nowadays. She points to Mommy or Daddy every time we come in; she points to the lights; she points to the birds/flies/airplanes that go by; she points to herself in the mirror; she points to any person she sees; she points to her toys or anything she wants. If she points to something and we give her the wrong item, she complains and points again until we give her the correct item.


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Ashley starts to understand words and associates words with the correct subjects/actions although she can't speak yet.

Every time I say, "Ashley, pai pai shou." Chinese for "Clap your hands", she smiles, claps her hands and giggles.

If I ask her, "Ashley, qiu qiu zai na li?" Chinese for "where is the ball?" She would look around in the room and fetch the ball.

One of her toys has two doors, one has a cat behind and one has a dog behind. So if I ask, "Mao Mao zai na li?" (Where is the cat?) or "Gou Gou zai na li? (Where is the dog?) Ashley crawls over to her toy, flips the doors open.

Why can I say? She's so smart! :-) And Daddy is also picking up Chinese at the same time! What a deal!


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I think Ashley understands kiss and sort of knows to kiss. If I lay down on the floor and ask, "Ashley, can you give Mommy a kiss?" She would crawl over, puts her entire face on mine, sticks out her tongue and licks me on my mouth and gives Mommy a big wet kiss!

It's so sweet and cute!


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I'm not sure if Ashley understands the concept of shadow or not. But yesterday while sitting at the backseat with her in the car, my shadow reflected on the seat right in front of her. So she kept on pointing to the shadow and kept on babbling trying to get my attention. I looked at the shadow, nodded my head, and said, "Yes, shadow!" She stopped babbling as if she knew what was going on and then pointed to the shadow again until I repeated, "Shadow."

Need I say again, she's a genius! :-) ;-) ;-)

Cruising / Standing / Climbing / Teddy Bear / Game / Shy

In the last few days, all the sudden, Ashley pulls herself up by the TV stand or by the sofa, and is able to move her feet sideway one at the time. It's almost like walking with support (AKA cruising). She is also able to switch from one supporting subject to another and continues her "cruising" until she reaches her destination. She's getting very close to be walking.

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Yesterday, Ashley pulled herself up from the coffee table, grabbed some toy with one hand, and started to play with it. For a few seconds, she was completely standing by herself without any support. It looks very sturdy too.

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Ashley loves to climb when you are holding her. It just looks like she wants to climb over your shoulder. The other day, she was able to climb herself up to her rocker chair. Everything is happening so fast.

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Ashley has this little towel bear that we always gave her when she goes to sleep since she was born. She loves that tiny little bear, holds it when she goes to sleep; plays with it when she wakes up and carries it with her when we pick her up from her crib. I put a pink Teddy Bear in her crib a while back and I think she plays with it when she wakes up in her crib as well. Yesterday I took her to play with her little friend, Cerisa, and there was a purple Teddy Bear. When Ashley saw the Teddy Bear, she grabbed it and gave it a big hug, almost with her head leaning on top the Teddy Bear, and then smiled. This was the first time I saw her doing that and it was so cute.

This morning, I gave her another Teddy Bear, she lighted up her eyes, grabbed it and gave it a big hug as well and then giggled. It was so cute and sweet. It looks like she's starting showing her girly personality.

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Ashley is becoming very aware of her surrounding and it seems she knows exactly what's going on. This morning, she took a pen that was hanging on my bag, so I said, "No Ashley, you can't play with that. Let's put it back." Right after I put back the pen, but she immediately crawled over, grabbed the pen again, looked at me, and made a couple "hehe" sound as if she was saying, "hehe, I goooot it again!"

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Ashely has the stranger anxiety sometimes, but every once a while, when she meets a stranger or even a familiar face, she loves to pretend to be shy. She would look at you, giggles, shakes her head and turns her heads away from you and smile, waits a couple seconds, turns back, giggles more, shakes her heads again and turns her head away. She would repeat this process several of times and seems to have a lot of fun with it. I sometimes wonder if she's pretending to be shy or if she was just playing a peek-a-boo game. What else it is, she's so cute and fun!