Running a rat race....and probably coming in last

My parents left after Christmas, and this is my first week back to work after the holidays. Since October, we've had one or both of my parents at home while Austin and I work. Naomi was still in daycare save a few days here and there, and my parents pretty much spoiled all of us by having dinner ready when we came home. And to top it off, my dad walked the dogs so we didn't even have to worry about them!

Now, I feel like I'm constantly on the go, trying to get from one point in the day to the next without a chance to breathe. And to make matters worse, Austin has been super busy at work, so with the exception of yesterday, we've had dinner every night without him. Tonight he didn't even make it home before Naomi's bedtime.

My daily schedule goes something like this:

4:30am - wake up

5:30am - go to work

5:50am - arrive at work

4:15pm - leave work, run to catch train at the WTC

4:40pm - arrive at Hoboken - run to catch NJ Transit train

5:15pm - arrive in Lyndhurst, run to car

5:30pm - arrive at Naomi's daycare

6:00pm - arrive at home, take care of dogs, deal with a fussy Naomi who's hungry and tired from daycare, prepare/reheat/cook dinner

6:30pm - feed Naomi dinner

7:20pm - Naomi's bathtime

7:30pm - pj's, storytime, milk, prayer time

8pm - Naomi's bedtime

8:00-8:30 relax

8:30pm - go downstairs, clean up dinner

9:00pm - cook/prep dinner for next day

10pm - relax/get clothes ready for next day

11pm - go to bed and start all over again.

phew, even typing it makes me exhausted

Milestones good and bad

Happy New Year's. We've had a great holiday season with family and friends in town. It was a great Christmas with my parents and both brother's as well as Austin's sister staying with us! The last time my whole family was here was last Thanksgiving, so it was nice to have everyone here. Naomi loved having so much family in our house and constantly was asking for ah-ma, dodo, gu-gu, fish and sris. It was definitely sad when everyone left and we had a quiet and empty house on Tuesday evening. Every once in awhile, Naomi says someone's name and asks where they are (her exact words: "Ah-ma...go??" with her shoulders and arms shrugged).
It has been so nice to have a week off during the holidays, and as usual I'm amazed by how much Naomi learns every day.
- She tells us when she's gone "poo poo"
-She's starting to recognize letters of the alphabet, and asks for her "AB..(pause) C" book all the time.
- She can count to 4 but knows numbers up to 9 (after 4 it chaos is the only type of order)
- Her back molars are coming in...probably the reason for the couple weeks of bad sleep which have thankfully passed
- She walks around pretending to make and serve coffee
- She knows how to get into the pantry, find the dog treats, get Lilo and Stitch to go to their crates and give them one treat each, then walk back to the pantry and put the treats away
- She still loves to dance, but now is constantly singing while she's playing. incredibly cute.
- She's learned to use my iPhone...she knows how to unlock it with the slider, and navigate to either elmo or ni hao kailan videos, or one of the two games that i have on the phone for her. I thought it was a fluke when I found her watching an elmo video with my phone which i mistakingly left within her reach...until i saw her navigate over and over again this week.
- She's learned that her toys are hers and now says, "MINE" if you have something she wants.
- She's learned to hit, mainly out of frustration, but she swats at whoever is near her
- She has learned NOT to share, and will hit or push kids if she doesn't want them near her toys
- She's noticing what she is wearing and has a STRONG opinion about what shoes she's wearing (she is my daughter afterall) She also loves to wear her new winter boots that Ah-ma gave her, all around the house. I kept laughing at her and thinking she was weird...until Austin caught me wearing my new boots around the house after a trip to woodbury commons. sigh i guess she really does get it from me.
- She's learned to throw temper trantrums and cry when she doesn't get her way, which then causes her to have time outs.

There are so many more developments that I've noticed in Naomi this week, too many of which I can list, and some that are just simply escaping me. It's been a great week and I'm already feeling sad that I'll be going back to work on Monday. At least it's a short day since I need to leave work early to take naomi for her 18 month pediatrician checkup.

Home sweet home and a little chat-a-holic

We got home from Cabo on Friday night. Our suitcases are still lying in the middle of our bedroom floor, our house is utter chaos. But it's so good to be home, sleeping in our own bed. It was an incredible trip and I'll post pictures later. But the best part of the trip by far was having so much time to spend with Naomi. She has really grown up so much over the past 1.5wks! She's saying over 50 words now and picking up more and more each day. It's incredible she'll point things out that we never even really made the effort to teach her yet, she's just so observant she picks so much up. (we definitely need to be more careful with what we say going forward!!) Last night her Nai Nai (Austin's mom) called, and Naomi was quick to grab the phone as always. We were in the middle of skypeing our friends Gene, Jaime and Alli, and Naomi was rudely ignoring the conversation and having one of her own! Here she is on the phone with Nai nai. And yes, Nai Nai was really on the other end...possibly for 10 whole minutes or longer!! Every time we told Naomi it was time to hang up and say bye bye, she'd say, "Noo no no"

The daycare that keeps on giving....

It took Naomi exactly one month to catch a virus from daycare. Well actually, to be fair, I think she caught the "perpetual runny nose" on her second day of daycare. But this Saturday, Naomi woke up with a slight fever, a ridiculously gross drippy nose, and a heavy phlegmy chest cough. She's been incredibly moody, and extremely tired. She even took two naps yesterday. She also hasn't been eating very much, it's been about 3 days now since she's had a real meal, but our doctor said as long as she's drinking liquids she should be ok. Thankfully Austin and I had already taken tomorrow off since daycare is closed due to Columbus Day, and we decided to make it a family day. Unfortunately it looks like we'll be stuck at home for the most part, like we have been all weekend, but at least Naomi will get some much needed rest, and we'll all be able to spend time together. I'm glad she's getting sick now rather than right before our vacation next week!

Simple things

Last night Austin got out of work a little early, just as I was finishing up dinner and Naomi and her grandpa were watching Ni Hao Kai Lan on tv. It’s such a nice treat when Austin gets home before 6:30, which is when we normally try to have dinner because it means we have more time to hang out before bath and bedtime for Naomi. Last night was such a great night, Naomi was in a great mood with very little fussing. We ended up just playing in our living room, with Naomi running back and forth between Austin and I. She’d walk (stomp) towards Austin with her arms wide open, ready to give him a hug, a huge, toothy grin spread across her face. As soon as she made it into Austin’s arms, she’d give him a hug, lean her head into his shoulder, then use him as leverage, push off and turn around to repeat the action towards me. She did this back and forth hugging for at least 20 minutes. It’s incredible how something as simple as watching her go back and forth can make up such a fun time, and something I desperately want to remember.

Happy Mid-Autumh Festival!!!

It's Mid-autumn festival in Asia. I'm definitely missing mooncakes from home, but thought we'd have a mini celebration by dressing Naomi up in a chinese shirt that Claire bought us when Naomi was born. Love this picture of Chris and Naomi saying cheese. I dont know if it's the silly smile, or that both of them have crazy morning hair...it just makes me smile

Tidbits of Naomi

I realize I've been a little melodramatic with my posts recently. And yet there is really so much to be thankful for because along with some of the struggles we've had this month, we've had some amazing times as a family as well. It really is a joy to watch Naomi grow and learn new things every day. Austin just finished up this video he's been meaning to put together for awhile, and I have to say, I cried after watching it. It's crazy to see how much Naomi has changed in just a few months. Anyway, here's the video, the first clip is of when she was just learning to crawl up steps, and here she is today, walking all over the house like she owns it.

Summer evenings

I love this time of year. It's warm out. No bulky coats, no itchy sweaters, no SOCKS. I hate socks. We recently had our backyard patio done and bought a patio table. We had originally rushed to get this all done for Naomi's birthday party, but as luck would have it, it stormed on her birthday party day, so we didn't get to enjoy it. However, now that the rain has finally cleared up and the weather has been beautiful at night, we've been eating dinner and breakfast outdoors more and more. There's something about eating outdoors, breathing fresh air, feeling the sun on your skin, that just makes me happy. After 12 hours in the office, it's just relaxing to have dinner outdoors with my family. Naomi seems to like it too. She's always much happier outdoors. And it's not as big a deal when she throws her food on the floor either (a daily event now). Although it means lilo and stitch miss out on their treats for that meal.

From Naomi 12 months

From Naomi 12 months

From Naomi 12 months

From Naomi 12 months

Paradise defined

Turks and Caicos truly was paradise. The beaches consisted of crystal clear blue water, soft white flawless sand. The weather was warm and humid (love it yes yes), yet there was still a strong breeze to cool you off throughout the day. It's hard being back at work after having an amazing week off with Austin and Naomi, but it makes me look forward to our next trip in just two weeks where we'll be going back up to Cornell for a friends wedding...or what I like to call it, the baby fest, since so many of our friends will be bringing their young kids/babies.

There are so many moments from Turks that I want to remember, making it harder for me to blog. Naomi did amazingly well on the flights to and from, especially in comparisons to some of the wild children on our flights. (although the car ride home from JFK is a completely different story, deserving of its own post, lets just say it was and wasn't one of naomi's finer moments). Naomi loved the water, loved the sand, loved all the attention she got from the different hotel staff. She was a nightmare to put to bed since we all shared a room. In retrospect I should have asked some friends who recently went on trips, for advice....some of it sounds very very reasonable...hiding out in a bathroom til she falls asleep sounds like pure genius at this point in time! But alas, we caved and rocked her to sleep for all her nap times and at night...making her a monster child when it came time to put her down to sleep at home. Tonight seems a bit better, she only cried for 12 mins before finally conking out. Ugh I hate sleep training.
What else? Naomi loved rinsing off after the beach in the outdoor showers. She LOVED, let me rephrase that, was OBSESSED with the fountains. She would stand on the edge and hold her hand against the spout so that she sprayed everyone within a 5 ft radius. Everytime we walked by the fountain she would stretch her arms out to it and say, "EHHHH" the way she does when she wants Austin or I to pick her up. She loved fruit and fish, and ate non stop. I was almost certain she'd weigh close to 20lbs when we got home which would help her move up in the % charts for her age group...(i weighed her when we got home....she barely gained an ounce). Most of all, I think she just loved having both Austin and I day and night. I know I certainly loved it.
There are too many pictures to post, but here are a couple, most of which will eventually be repeats on Austin's blog.

Memorial Day weekend

We had quite the eventful memorial day weekend in the Wei household. It started on Friday morning when Austin dropped Naomi off at work with me. Despite skipping a nap, Naomi was her usual charming self and pretty much won everyone over in the office. It's always cute to see grown men coo and talk gibberish to a little baby. After spending the morning at my office, we trekked up to Austin's office for lunch. There, Naomi showed off the her amazing dance moves and her affinity to kissing stuffed animals...yes, we are sad to report, she kissed a Yankee's beanie baby bear. On Saturday, Austin and I started the day off early and headed down to Greenbrook, NJ. A couple of hours later and thousands of dollars out of our pockets, left us with a new car! We finally traded in our '97 Honda CRV and purchased an '08 Toyota Highlander Limited. It's so much nicer! And what a treat to have working air conditioning in the summer! On Sunday we had our bbq, and were thankful the weather held up. We even had a chance to bust out the baby pool for the kiddies to play in again. Naomi got to play with her buds Alli and Josiah, and even got to meet Maxine and Liam. It's amazing to see how she interacts with other kids. How she naturally gravitates towards other children, and sometimes it does make me wonder if we should start considering daycare soon. On Monday, after a yummy pancake breakfast in our backyard, we ran a couple of errands, mainly picking stuff up for Naomi's birthday party. In the afternoon, we had another playdate with Josiah and Alli. I still remember our first "playdate" with Alli, where Naomi slept threw the entire date, and Alli wanted nothing to do with Naomi anyway. Hah now, they're crawling all over each other, feeding each other food, stealing each others toys and poking each other in the eyes. Naomi defintitely loved her time with Josiah as well. She actually made the poor boy cry in her over zealous attempt at being cuddly with him. She crawled after him, tried to hug him, and even kissed him! Guess she missed the lesson on respecting other's personal space. We finished off the long weekend with dinner in our backyard. Weekends like this make me love our house, our neighborhood, our friends and our family. Thanks for a great weekend everyone!

HOT HOT HOT

This weekend we skipped spring and jumped right into the heat of Summer. It was over 90 degrees today! We took advantage of the warm weather, raced out to buy a baby pool on Friday night, went for a stroll at Branch Brook park to see the cherry blossoms, decided on having a last minute bbq with jaime gene and alli, and broke out the pool for the babies to cool down. Overall an incredible weekend...but I think Naomi may have gotten a little too much sun cause her cheeks are a bit pink. UGH and that's with me lathering on the baby sunblock (spf 60+) until she was nice and white. We'll have to figure something out for our vacation in May! Sorry for the picture overload...but that's what you all really want anyway!