7/2/2012 Giving 'sick to the stomach' its due

On Saturday night, we went to dinner at one of the chinese restaurants.  The food was not unexpectedly greasy but 'decent'.  Evan didn't like it though and ate very little.  A few hours later, Evan threw up most everything that was in his stomach.  We thought maybe the culprit was some food from lunchtime, perhaps even soymilk.  June and I felt ok for now.  The next morning, around 6 am, I woke up with sudden feeling of diarrhea and ran to the bathroom and relieved myself.  I thought that would be it, but then about 3 hours later, I woke up with not just a feeling of diarrhea but also wanting to vomit.  And before I could get myself to the bathroom, I grabbed a towel and emptied my entire stomach's contents.  It was the most rancid feeling I've ever felt, after which I totally collapsed as all of my energy was completely gone.  I could barely stand or sit up.  Evan, having vomited the night before, seemed to be feeling better but still lethargic so we tried to cajole him to sleep more with us.  He sort of did but by 11am'ish, was ready to get up.  June cooked us some porridge and both Evan and I had a bit, but I was still extremely exhausted and wanted to keep sleeping.  June was now getting a little nauseated as well.  She took Evan for a stroll to the local park while I tried to sleep a bit more.  After they came back after about half an hour, June was getting really really tired, so I started to be more active.  A few hours later, June threw up as well and remained very weak for the rest of the day.  By about 10pm, I had become a bit better and then after a fairly good night's sleep, I felt much better this morning, as did June. 

5/21/2012 Evan's sayings

Evan just turned 20 months yesterday and his verbal skills are developing very quickly.  He's grasping concepts as well as individual words quickly and is clearly 'thinking' before reacting/responding.  We play some kids songs on youtube on the iphone/itube and after 2 or 3 notes, he would smile as he realizes what song was being played (Muffin man, Bingo, Old Macdonalds the latest).  If we play a youtube clip that he's never heard before, he would keep his head really still and listen to the notes and try to determine if it's something he's heard before, and if not, he would listen carefully to see what was in the song.  If the lyrics were clear and slow enough, he would sing along a bit after 5 or so tries.  If he's not interested, he would announce another song title that he would rather listen to.

He understands when I'm talking about something in the past.  Like if I asked him what we saw at San Antonio yesterday, he would say pigs, horse, rooster, etc, and no-cows (we got there too late, the farm was closed).  He said we also saw horse's poo, something new I showed him yesterday.  Speaking of San Antonio, I took him there yesterday, so it was just him and me.  We went up the PGE trail but just a few feet into the trail, he ran to the front of the stroller and said he wanted to sit (in the stroller), because the trail was really steep.  I obliged but when the trail leveled out, I got him off the stroller and little by little, he walked with me, often many paces behind and then running to catch up as other hikers/runners passed by and startled him a bit.  He walked quite a bit more than he usually did on weekends and that was obvious when he slept till past 8am this morning.  As we hiked around, Evan got more comfortable and started to sing his favorite songs.  I asked him to see a few new songs, too: Looby Loo, Goodnight Eeyore.  He's learning new songs so quickly that it's a bit of a challenge to teach him new ones as we dont know many ourselves.

Another thing Evan has learned to do recently is to divert a task we ask of him to someone else. For example, if I ask him to sing a song and he's either too tired or dont know how to sing it, he would say 'mama sing', or 'papa sing', meaning that we should sing it instead.  Or if we gave him something he didn't really want to eat or if he's really happy with what he's eating, he would give some to us and ask us to eat it. 

Somewhere someone taught him what it meant to ride a horse on someone back, so whenever we lie on our stomachs on the carpet during his bedtime, he would tell us he wants to 'ride horse' and proceed to get on our backs. 

Strawberries: he likes the fresh ones that can be picked right off the plant. He doesnt like strawberries that we've bought from stores and have been in the fridge.  So whenever he wanted strawberries, he would say he wants to go outside for strawberries.

5/15/2012 - more songs by Evan

Evan loves to sing and bounce/dance to the songs as he's singing.  In this video, he is 19 months old and singing 5 different tunes, not all of them clearly :)  It's such a joy to watch and listen to him enjoying himself with the songs!

5/8/2012 - Evan and daddy

Here's a nice portrait of Evan and me, with Evan drooling over strawberries!

4/30/2012 - evan uses substitution in songs

Evan has been singing a lot lately, whether out walking, eating, or just around the house, he would sing various songs to himself.  His more-often-sung songs lately has been: 1) (chinese) mama is the best in the world, 2) twinkle-twinkle little star [chinese & english], 3) old macdonalds had a farm, 4) row row row your boat.  This morning, he did something new.  Instead of singing the lyrics, he sang "bao" for every note to the tune of Old Macdonalds (i think).  He learned to do that on his own, we hadn't taught him that!  His language skills are developing really quickly lately.  He understands most of what we say and if it's something new, he can guess at the meaning after just once or twice.  He's still not counting conceptually or recognizing the concept of colors but I think he may soon. 

4/27/2012 - growing wheat grass at home

What grass is supposedly something really good for you.  But eating it is for cows and horses, no?  Well, some people would say that humans should eat it, too, as it has immense healing effects.  Is it true? I guess one has to try to find out.  Growing it at home is pretty easy, just a planting flat, some soil, some seeds, and a bit of patience (not a lot since it grows to harvest-ready in just about 10 days).  Here are some pics

4/21/2012 - Evan sings

Evan singing happy birthday, among other songs.

4/11/2012 Evan enjoying Old Macdonalds

One of Evan's first ever multi-syllable phrases was "E - i - e - i - O" from the song Old MacDonalds. Here he's almost 1 yr 7 months and still his favorite song is Old MacDonalds. He's enjoying it on the iphone here, rocking as the video plays.

4/8/2012 Evan's first Easter Egg Hunt

As we were walking around on 4/7 (Sat), we ran into a neighbor kid from one block away.  As we talked to her about this and that, her mom came out and introduced herself and invited us to an egg hunt the next day (4/8) at 8:30 am.  So we went the next day and there were probably 20+ kids.  Evan was really shy at first and didn't even want to leave our side but once the egg hunt started, he started getting into the it and started picking up eggs one by one, examining some at length especially if they weren't of egg shaped (some were shaped like chickens or piggies).

4/7/2012 Happy Hollow Zoo

After another chilly week, the sun came out and the temperature warmed up enough that we were able to take Evan to Happy Hollow Zoo, it had been several months since we were last here.  Evan had a great time and was able to enjoy the play sets more than before.  He was a little cranky around lunch time but ate well after his nap.

More pictures

4/3/2012 - happy baby

(Don't tell Evan the book is upside down!)

4/2/2012 - Language and eating

Evan had his 18 months checkup about two weeks ago.  He's healthy and running along the 5% weight growth chart.  He's growing fairly well length-wise though (37%).  We asked the pediatrician a couple of things - whether to let Evan out of the crib, if there's a better way to brush his teeth, when he might grasp the concept of color, etc.  The answers for at least these 3 questions were: 1) keep him in the crib as long as possible, cuz the minute he gets out, you lose control of where he goes and when.  2) just brush him no matter how much he doesn't like it. It's better than if have to put him in the dentist's chair for cavities. 3) toddlers may not understand the concept of colors until they're 4 or so. 

Evan's language skills have been developing at an astounding pace.  He shocked us the other day by reciting a couple of chinese poems he learned at daycare.  True his pronunciation isn't perfect but it's amazing that he remembered so many verses.  One of the poems he recited was maybe 50 words or more. He likes Click Clack Moo (Cows that type) book and video and will say "click clack moo" over and over.  The cow remains his favorite animal though he has started to take a little Curious George monkey doll around with him and calls him "Georgie".  He can spell out cow: "C... o... w, cow!".  He recognizes the letters O, X, and W after teaching him that one night.  He seems to have bursts of learning capacity where he'll absorb and retain something indefinitely. 

Evan's still not eating too well at home, though.  He would take a bite and then refuse to eat further, even though he'll eat the whole thing at daycare.  We probably didn't teach him properly when he was younger.  We're gonna try to discipline things a bit and not let him play with food or ask him over and over if he wants to eat something.  He knows when we're upset or angry but he doesn't quite know how to please us.  He tried to get on my better side yesterday by asking me to hold him.  Awww... hard to stay angry with him when he's so cute.

3/18/2012 - Valley Fair

Valley Fair is a fairly nice shopping mall in San Jose, across from Santana Row.  On this day, I wanted to take him there to see some toy stores and to see how Apple's new ipad was selling.  The Apple store was hella busy as usual and I didn't ask if they had the new ipads in stock.  I checked out the mac air, they're incredibly light and beautiful.  I then wanted to take him to the Lego and other toy stores.  It turns out the mall placed all of the toy stores in an area (as opposed to scattering them around), this is a good move for parents as dragging kids around the mall is no easy task.  When we arrived at the toys 'area' of the mall, I saw an enclosed play area for toddlers and young kids!  What a surprise, either it's new or I just didn't notice it before.  Here are a few photos there where Evan is playing the slides.

2/12/2012 (16.7 months) - Cataldi park

We went to a picnic and met up with old friends today. 10 years ago none of us had any kids. Today, there were more kids than adults.

2/12/2012 - logic

A few days ago, Evan grabbed a small toy car from the toy bin and started saying something that I didn't quite understand.  It was one of those toy cars that had wheels that only turned when you push the car along a surface, i.e., it wasn't motorized or needed any battery.  It looked like Evan was trying to turn it on because he flipped the car to the underside to look for a switch.  The reason he did this is because he has another bigger toy car which does require batteries and had a switch on the underside.  But this toy car didn't have a switch.  He got a little irritated that I didn't know what he wanted so he pulled me by the hand and led me to the hallway closets and signaled me to open it.  After I opened it, he pointed up at one of the shelves and said something like 'arrie'.  He had seen me take batteries out of a container on the shelf so I figured he was looking for that.  So I brought out the container, opened it and he immediately went to grab a battery.  But before he was done, he also signaled me to get the screwdriver out of the screwdriver kit/box.  Basically, he wanted to make the toy car go, and so in order to do that, he concluded that he needed batteries.  And in order to install the batteries, he needed a screwdriver to open the battery door.  None of this would be remarkable if he was a 3 or 4 year old, but he's only 16.5 months old.  Perhaps all babies are able to transfer knowledge about one object onto a similar object.  But not only did he know that the toy car needed batteries, he also knew that it wasn't a simple matter of having a battery, but that the battery needed to be placed into the car and that required a tool.  Amazing set of logic gears running in there!