Hannah's 4 month sleep regression?

Dear Nathan, 

As the Christmas season approaches, there are lots of fun things for kids to do. One night, you finally got a chance to ride a school bus! Boy, were you excited. We met up with a few friends for dinner and we headed to the Buda trail of lights. Personally, I liked the Wimberley displays better, but the lights were ok. When we arrived, we were able to immediately hop on a shuttle bus. By the time we left, there was a super long line to ride the shuttles. It seems like we usually get to places right before there are long lines. This happens a lot when we go to places like restaurants. 

Our friends had brought a few glow sticks for the kids and it was super fun to watch you guys play with them like they were light sabers. You guys definitely had more fun with the light sabers than you did looking at the lights. But I'd say riding the bus was the highlight of the evening. 

 A few days ago, we went on a road trip to Dallas. I'd say it was the most successful trip we've taken in awhile. We actually made it to Dallas in 4 hours. We drove to Waco first, had lunch at the famous Vitek's BBQ (The Gut Pack, of course) and then played for an hour at the park. Afterwards, we made the second leg of the trip and both you and Hannah took a nap for almost the rest of the way.

The next day, we went to the airport to fly to Chicago to visit Grandma and Grandpa. We arrived at the airport super early and play area at the Dallas Love Field airport was pretty integral in making the 3 hours go by quickly. For most of the time, you would pretend that the plane would crash and you would fix it with an imaginary hammer. We had the whole play area to ourselves for a good part of the time, and then more friends joined later.

 About an hour before boarding, we went to look at the planes. You were just mesmerized with the planes, trucks, and people. And then finally, it was time for us to board. We looked at the long line of planes lined up on the tarmac, getting ready to take off. When the plane started to accelerate, you exclaimed, "too fast!" you were excited, didn't look too scared, but your little hand gripped daddy's hand very tightly.

 When the lights outside the window disappeared, we had our dinner, ate some snacks and drank some juice. By then, half of the flight was over and then you got to watch a Thomas the train movie.

For the past few weeks, you have been fighting bedtime. Daddy figured out that maybe you were afraid of the dark and just didn't know how to express it, so ever since we put a night light in your room, bedtime is back to being a peaceful routine.

You continue to be quite the backseat driver. When we are driving, you will tell us to "go, " "slow down, [mommy or daddy]," "too fast," "faster." You also continue to make requests to hear certain songs from the chinese kids' song CD. You can be quite demanding.

***

Dear Hannah,
Can you believe it? Tomorrow, you turn 4 months old! This time has gone by so quickly.

 This past weekend, you got to come along and attend Nathan's monthly baby party gathering. It is so cool to see the difference between you and Gus (another friend who was only born a few days before you) and your older brother and sister, respectively. Pretty soon, you will be as crazy as they are!

You are getting pretty good at holding your head up and you are happy for most of the time, except for car rides at night. You just don't like moving in the dark, I guess.

I guess the reason that I'm making this post late is that you've been going through a rough patch. I'm not quite sure if it is teething, sickness, or growth spurt, but  you've been wanting to eat every 1-2 hours and have been napping for no more than 30 minutes. Just last night, you woke up 4 times to nurse. I'm thinking it is the famous 4 month sleep regression period. Nathan went through the same thing when he was about 4 months and today, you are 4 months old. I am actually getting a chance to update the blog because you are asleep, and actually have been asleep since 11:30, (2.5 hours) which is the longest stretch you have slept in the past 24 hours. More updates on how the rest of the week pans out later.

Well, I guess that's about it. we have some exciting plans for the next few days. Until next week, be gentle and sweet.

Love,
Mommy

Super Smiley 16 Week-er And Big Brother Singer

Dear Nathan and Hannah, 

It's been a busy past few days as we make our final preparations for the Christmas season. We've trimmed the tree ...

We decided that Nathan could put the ornament hooks on and I would hang them. He can thread a tiny wire through a hole, but can't seem to hang the hooks on the branches. 

Worked on some crafts to give away as gifts...

 And discovered the amazing-ness of cracker sandwiches. In the picture below, Nathan is making an avocado, turkey and cheese cracker sandwich. After you took your first bite, you exclaimed "Wow, Yum."

While I think we've regressed on the veggies, I'm sure Nathan will come to love veggies one day, but now is just not the time. Until then, we will continue to hide (ahem), I mean accent your foods with pureed veggies.

One cool thing that Nathan has recently started to do is to sing melodically. It used to be that you would just sing the last word of each verse, but now you can sing at least 60% of all the songs that you know. Sometimes when I join you to sing, you would tell me, "Mommy, Ni sing!" Which really translates to "Mommy, I sing" because "Ni" is Chinese for "you" and sometimes Nathan confuses the pronouns "you" and "I."      

Hannah has been super smiley lately and is becoming more aware of your surroundings. There has been times when sudden noises would surprise Hannah so much that she would turn away from nursing to see where the noise was coming from.

As far as our schedule goes, we typically take a bath at 7, followed by a nursing session and then a short book. Afterwards, Hannah is swaddled and walked around until you fall asleep. Daddy or I then put you down in the pack and play and you are usually asleep by 8:30. Around 11:00 I give you a dream feed and then you wake up around 3, and then again either 2 or 4 hours afterwards. Your normal wake-up time is between 7:45 and 8:30. You take a 45 minute nap around 10 and then another short one around lunch time. Your longest nap of the day starts at 2ish and lasts 2-3 hours. Sometimes you will take a short catnap around dinner time. Some days the schedule is completely off, but it never lasts more than 2 days.

Everywhere I go, everyone comments on how well behaved and content you are. If you weren't so darn cute, I'd probably forget that I even have a baby.

A HUGE event that we have in Austin every year is called the trail of lights. The last time we went was two years ago, when Nathan was only a few months old. We lucked out and found a parking spot in the park and it was pretty crowded. Since then, I've heard that it is even more crowded and then you also have to deal with parking and/or shuttles. Truthfully, with a toddler and an infant, it was just not worth the trouble. So, we drove a bit further south to a small town, Wimberley, and visited their trail of lights. Daddy and I both agree that even though it was smaller in scale, it was perfect for a little toddler to explore and marvel at.                                                                                                                                                                                                        

We have never seen the movie Frozen, but Nathan sure knew who this guy was. 

Golf balls for mallets? Brilliant! 

In the picture below, Nathan saw the fire, climbed onto one of the chairs and started to sing the "Happy Birthday" song. After you finished, you tried to blow out the fire. We had to explain that this was a camp fire and that the fire was too big to blow out. However, I was so proud of you for seeing the fire and making that connection to the flame on a candle. 

 At the end of a path full of slightly sloped stairs (which were a bit difficult for Nathan to navigate) we discovered a "big christmas tree." Daddy showed Nathan how to get dizzy by twirling underneath.

 And then we saw a big ball of lights. I really loved this particular display "He's got the whole world in His hands." Along the path to the globe, there were signs reading "Merry Christmas" in many different languages.

Overall, it was such a fun night. Nathan had lots of fun just observing the light displays and exploring the grounds. I'd say it's a new tradition that we will continue to do until at least the kids start school.

A few months ago, I met a lady at a park who was from Taiwan. After talking for awhile, she told me that she and a few other Chinese moms get together once a month for a potluck/play date and would invite me to the next one. I've been to 2 meetings so far and have really enjoyed hanging out with these moms. A lot of what they do with their children/homes reminds me of what my parents and guardians have done according to the Chinese tradition. Many things that once was very familiar, but now faded away in a very distant memory (like troll dolls for my generation). While I love being immersed in the Chinese culture once again, I can't help feel a bit different because unlike most of the other women, I was born in the US and was for the most part, raised as an American. Nonetheless, they are very accepting and great cooks too. Unfortunately, I've only been able to take Hannah to the meetings, but I'm hoping that one day Nathan can join along and play with more kids who speak Chinese.

Oh, before I leave I want to mention that for the most part, Nathan has become very accepting of Hannah and will be very gentle when playing. But Nathan, sometimes when you are getting ready to take a nap, or has just woken up from a nap and are grumpy, you will insist that I put Hannah down and just cuddle with you. We normally just all jump in mommy's bed and cuddle together, but I want you to know that I love both of you equally, but in different ways. I hold Hannah a lot because she can't walk yet and you can. Remember that, OK?

Well, that's about it for now.
Love you both,
Mommy

Hannah's First Thanksgiving at 15 Weeks

Dear Kiddos, 

This week has been an exciting one. First, Ama and Auntie Momo came to visit for Thanksgiving. While they were here, we went to visit Mt. Bonnell (Austin's highest point) and the new riverwalk on the east side of town. 

Ama and Auntie Momo are pretty much the only other people that you two hear Chinese from, so just after 2 short days, I feel like Nathan is already speaking more Chinese. Every morning Nathan will say good morning to me in Chinese, which I think is so sweet.

Nathan also loved playing with Auntie Momo's pit-bull mix dog. He would chase her while riding on his scooter. I feel like those few play sessions helped improve his scooter skills. In fact, yesterday, we were able to go on a normal paced walk with Hannah in the stroller, Teddy on the leash, and Nathan on the scooter.

After our guests left, the weather stayed wonderful, so we went outside to put up some Christmas lights. Nathan wanted to rake the leaves, so we got the rake out for him to play.

 Hannah just hung out and watched us while we were all hard at work.

 Then, I decided to take a few pictures of Hannah in a pile of leaves like I had done with Nathan.

 And then Nathan decided that he needed some pictures too.

 Which quickly turned into playing with the leaves.

 After coming home from church that night, we saw the fruit of our labors.

 The lights are a bit mismatched, but I kind of like it. As our family grows, our light display will also slowly grow. Maybe someday we'll get one of those giant blow up lawn ornaments to put up front. Last year, one of our neighbors had a 20 foot snowman. Crazy.

On Saturday, we went to watch Daddy play roller hockey with Abigail's dad. Abigail's mom brought hockey sticks for the kids to play with and Nathan got so excited that he wanted to go in the court to play hockey. I love Nathan's spirit and willingness to try new things. When I told Nathan that he couldn't play hockey because he was too small, he pointed to himself and said, "try?"

He's adventurous, and for awhile when we would tell him things like "it's spicy" he would second guess us and want to try it anyways, but now, he takes our word for it most of the time. Now when he tries it anyways, I think it's just out of curiosity. Almost everything that he is experiencing now is new to him, so I'm just going to encourage his sense of curiosity by making sure he remains safe doing so.

Other interesting things that Nathan has tried or wanted to try include black pepper (liked it), hot fries (liked it), coffee ice cream (liked it), kosher salt (liked it a lot), root beer (didn't like it at first, but then liked it), driving (too young), brussel sprouts (didn't like it), hot sauce (didn't like it), kale leaves (said "yum" but didn't eat anymore), climbing a ladder (successful), and pomegranate (liked it).

Nathan is starting to understand how to play more gently. More often than not, he makes it through a whole day without having to go to any time outs. And as Hannah becomes more interactive, I can see Nathan's love for Hannah grow each day.

Nathan is starting to understand how pronouns are used correctly in both Chinese and English. For a long time, "You" was incorrectly used by Nathan when he referred to himself. He is starting to sometimes correct himself by using "I" or "me." Nathan is also saying "sorry" a lot. It's really cute when he does it. 

Oh, a few nights ago, we were going through the bedtime routine and noticed that Nathan's post tuck-in protesting had escalated into a cry. So Daddy went up and re-started the routine and I came in to help finish (once Hannah had been put to bed). We talked and as I put you down in your crib, your lower lip started to tremble, getting ready to cry. I quickly stroked your face and said, "Don't cry." and my heart just melted as you took a deep breath and tried to hold your tears in. I don't know why, but bedtime has become a bit tougher on you lately. Last night, we sent you to bed with a flashlight and it made the transition a lot smoother. You were even able to turn off the flashlight before you fell asleep like I asked you to. We'll see if this helps you in the long run. 

Last night Hannah had a weird night as well. After sleeping for 7 and a half hours (not counting the dream feed) you woke up at 4 am for a feed and stayed up for almost an hour and a half before falling back asleep. At one point, I looked at you and you smiled back with big eyes like you were ready to play. I hope this will not continue (the staying awake for 1.5 hours part...not the sleeping for 7 hours part, you can keep doing that). 

I am very thankful to be able to be such a big part of both of your daily lives. Your innocence and fresh take on life is a refreshing reminder of the perfect beings that God has created us to be. I wish I could protect you two from the...complications of the world, but I think one of my biggest challenges as a parent will be to adequately prepare you two to face bravely them.  I pray for God's guidance. 

In the meantime, keep exploring and playing joyfully. 

Love, 

Mommy