Jasmine's First Steps (video)

Jasmine woke up super early this morning, at 5:45am. Yawn, wished that she'd stay in bed and sleep in sometimes. I guess she had a feeling that she will be accomplishing a tremendous task today so she wanted to get up early.

Well after eating breakfast, Jasmine wanted to do her rounds and walk around in the basement. She was holding onto my left finger (as usual) and then suddenly, she let go. And then she walked 5 steps right up to the wall. Wow, I was thinking to myself, that's gotta be a fluke. So I picked her up and walked back into the living room area and then started to walk her again. She did it again. Another 5 steps.

I guess that's it. She's started walking now. And all throughout today, she was walking here and there on her own. I was following closely behind her in case she lost her balance and fell over (which did happen). She's taken probably over 100 steps today, walking all over the house, from the living room to the kitchen and from my room to her room.

Check out the video of Jasmine's first steps:

Christmas in Victoria 2008

Richard, Jasmine and I went over to Victoria for 4 days, to visit my parents over Christmas. We spent Dec. 24-27th in Victoria, spending time with family.

Initially, it felt like it was going to be a difficult trip, seeing that the snow poured all night long and there was several inches of fresh snow on the road. It took us 45 minutes of digging to get the car out onto the main street but we managed to get to the ferry terminals without further trouble.

Once in Victoria, the weather was much milder as there was hardly any snow at all. Lisa brought little Momo along (her doggy) and Jasmine was just ecstatic. You would have thought that she has never seen a dog in her life. Jasmine practically chased Momo around the living room and kitchen. Momo was running around the couch and Jasmine following behind. It was a funny sight.

All in all, a wonderful trip with family.

Is she going to be a Dentist?

I've always wondered...when parents have kids, what do they want the kids to be when they grow up? I'm thinking that right now, about Jasmine. Hmmmmmm.

About a month ago, I was just fooling around and decided to play a game we have in Chinese. It's where you spread out a bunch of items on a table that represents different professions. And then you let the baby choose what he or she wants. The first item she picks up will represent what profession she will be in the future.

For Jasmine, I picked the following items (from right to left):

- crayons (artist)
- medicine (doctor)
- pen (writer)
- USB (computer geek)
- toothbrush (dentist)
- guitar (musician)
- chopstick (chef)
- MJ tile (gambler)

And I let Jasmine pick. She picked the toothbrush!!! Looks like we got a dentist in the family.

Adyson's 1st Birthday Party

We celebrated little Adyson's birthday this past weekend. I call her little because she is exactly 3 weeks younger than me. But she's not that little actually; I think she is bigger in size than me and weighs more than me. Adyson also has 5 teeth, and I only have 4. When will my other teeth come in? I am drooling alot every day.

We had lots of fun at Adyson's place. She's got a nice table and drawers where she puts all of her toys. I met alot of friends there. Mommy and Daddy even let me eat some cake! And then afterwards, we climbed up the entire case of stairs... we had a great time. Happy Birthday Adyson!

Pics of the Party

Sorry it took so long; took me a while to go through all the photos. Here are the pics from Jasmine's birthday party. If you click on them, they will enlarge.

1) Our living room
2) Winnie and Jasmine:

3) Courtney, Jasmine and Megan (in background)
4) Courtney and Aria (in background)

5) Gerri and Jasmine
6) Aria and Winnie (in background)

7) Lisa and Jasmine
8) Lisa, Jasmine, and Vivian

9) Jasmine showing off toy
10) Karen, Shawn and Megan

11) Emily, Ty and Thang (in background)
12) Jasmine stealing Ty's toy

13) Rick and Adyson
14) Rick, Wrency, Adyson and Courtney

15 and 16) Jasmine, Courtney and Adyson (aren't they cute?)

17) Tom, Courtney and Anna
18) Jasmine and Vivian

19) Vivian, Jasmine and Richard
20) Birthday cupcakes

Ok, I have like 30 pics of this and none of them turned out. So I picked the one where you can see everyone's head. NOTE - BABIES DO NOT LIKE BIRTHDAY HATS!!!

21) Nina and Aria, Anna and Courtney, Emily and Ty, Vivian and Jasmine, Rick and Adyson, Karen and Megan
22) Cory and Jasmine

23 and 24) Vivian and Jasmine

Drinking with Cup

Because Jasmine is teething pretty badly, she will not drink from a bottle anymore. She will let me put the bottle into her mouth but she won't suck. Being a worried Mom and all, I tried putting the milk into a normal cup and letter her take small sips from it. And guess what? She likes drinking milk this way!

Mind you, only half of the milk gets into her body but it's better than nothing. Here is Jasmine demonstrating how to use a cup:

Need More Bibs

Jasmine is teething and teething, and drooling and drooling. Seems like she is stuck in the teething mode. I just bought 16 new bibs for her, in the hopes of getting rid of that cheek rash she has. It's just amazing how much she drools.

She's also especially cranky these few days. When Jasmine went to get her 1 year shots, the doc did mention that between day 5-13 after her shots, she will experience some flu-like symptoms. Well, she certainly got those symptoms. She's not sleeping or eating well. We'll just have to wait it out I guess.

Waking Early Morning

For the past 2 nights, Jasmine has been waking up early morning (4:45am). She drinks an entire bottle of milk and then goes back to sleep until 7am. I guess she's hungry so she wakes up but that's a little too early for my liking. I have to get her to eat more during the day.

I still remember when Jasmine I first introduced solid foods and she absolutely refused eating it. That was around 8 months. And then she started liking solid foods and refused milk. I think that was around 9 months. And now, she is starting to refuse solid foods again and drinking milk only. What is going on here?

When Jasmine liked solids, she would gobble up the puree really quickly. And then it took longer, about 30 minutes. Now, it takes an hour to get Jasmine to eat a small bowl of puree (4oz). The last few days, she can't even finish the bowl (I give her 45 minutes time limit). She won't even eat the Gerber puffs anymore which she loves. Hopefully it's just a phase.

1 year Shots

We went to the docs office today, so Jasmine can have her one year shots. Ouch! She had 4 needles jabbed into her thigh. Poor Beeps. She was crying so hard. The doc didn't give the shots quickly either, she did them one by one S-L-O-W-L-Y. And after each needle went in, Jasmine was screaming her head off. I felt so bad.

Good thing is, she stopped crying after about 5 minutes. But she refused to sit into her carseat afterwards so I ended up carring her and pushing the car seat buggy thing all the way back to the car. I think she just wanted to be cuddled for a while. Oh yeah, her stats:

- weight 18lb 6 oz (10th %)
- length 29 inches (50th %)
- big head (so big that the doc had to measure it again...)
- can stand solo for 2 seconds
- swaying to music
- loves reading books
- gives high-five
- walks around holding on to one hand (she's a walkaholic)

Jasmine's balance is getting better now. She can actually walk around holding onto only 1 hand, rather than both hands. Because she walks and walks and my back is killing and killing me...I bought this thing called Walking Wings. It's this thing that you put around her waist and under her armpit, and it allows you to hang on to her without bending over. I haven't had a chance to use it yet but I'll give it a try and let you know how it goes.

Jasmine just came up to me, holding her arms out again (please pick me up Mommy...). How can I resist?

What a party!

Jasmine celebrated her first birthday with some friends on Sunday afternoon. It was a wonderful bash! There were 6 babies in total. We cleared out the basement and layered foamy mats over the floor area and then scattered toys everywhere. Babies were playing and walking around everywhere.

Unfortunately I'm in the process of collecting all the pics from the party right now so I don't want to finish this post just yet. I'll have to update it when I get them all. Come back to this post, ok?

Happy Birthday Jasmine!

Today is Jasmine's birthday; she just turned one years old. Sad, my baby is growing up. She's not a baby anymore; she's a toddler now. Jasmine is having her birthday party this Sunday but I had to celebrate today as well. Here she is, enjoying her first slice of cake:

While we were singing the birthday song, Jasmine was attracted to the bright burning candle and she stuck her finger into it. She only did it for a second, but she started screaming her head off. I guess she burned her little fingers on the hot wax. Poor Jasmine, her first experience with fire wasn't a nice one.

Bouncing Bouncing (video)

Ok, so Jasmine found that she can bounce in her crib. She LOVES jumping on her mattress thing. I think she figured it out when she was learning how to get down after standing up in her crib. She would climb up and stand in her crib then fall down on her butt onto the mattress to get down. Sometimes, she would land on her back...and it doesn't hurt! So now she stands in her crib and just bounces around. Take a look at this:

Back to Work - First Day

I went to work today, the first time in 12 months. Wow, it feels really weird, not having baby around. And the funny thing is, right when I walked into the office, it felt as though I never even left the office in the first place. I didn't even call home to check with my FIL to see how things are going. I know that Jasmine is in good hands.

The 8 hours blew by quickly. By the time I got home, Jasmine missed me alot. She held up her hands so that I could pick her up. Mind you, I had to change her dirty diaper first, but hey, I missed that smell all day.... She's sleeping now, so we got some Mom and Dad time. Did I tell you that Jasmine is perfect right now?

Finally, Cold is Over

It took a few days but Jasmine isn't sick anymore. I'm glad it is over, and she didn't pass it to me either....phewf. That's the last thing I want before I head back to work. I am working 2 days a week starting tomorrow.

Just this week, we were having some troubles with Jasmine sleeping again. She's fussy and screams and screams when we put her into bed. Maybe we are putting her to sleep later so she's more tired. Her sleep time was 8pm but we've moved it later to 9pm. It just kinda happened.

I think it was Thursday night when I let her cry to sleep, using the CIO method. It was heartbreaking; I knew I had to do it though. I basically put her into the crib, said goodnight and walked out of the room. I let her cry for 10 minutes and then went back into her room to lie her down (she was standing in the crib), said goodnight and left the room again. And then waited another 10 minutes... after 30 minutes, I checked on her every 15 minutes. I think it took just over an hour before she fell asleep. And then on Friday night, she fell asleep after 20 minutes. Not bad. And on Saturday, Jasmine went to sleep pretty quickly, about 5 minutes.

Not sure why Jasmine backtracked on her sleeping habits, because she was sleeping fine before. She is teething right now so I'm not sure if that has anything to do with it. And she got rashes this morning so I must have fed her something she is allergic to. I gotta find out what it is. Squash? Hmmmm.

Drool, Drool, Drool (video)

Alright, as the title suggests, Jasmine is drooling like crazy again. I guess that means teething again. I have a stack of like 20 bibs in her dresser and I'm going through the pile in 2 days. That tells you how much drool is coming out of her mouth.

I can't feel where the next tooth will pop out. Mind you, since she's got 4 teeth now, I DO NOT want to stick my finger in her mouth longer than I have to. My finger has been chomped on a few times already (and it hurt plenty!). I gotta get her a real baby tooth brush soon.

To help with the teething, I bought her a teether that buzzes. When she bites on the teether, it buzzes and gives a funny tingly sensation. Yeah, I tried it out myself. It reminds me of when I am at the dentist getting my teeth drilled in. Jasmine seems to like it.

Here's a video of the buzzing teether. If you turn on the volume to high, you can hear the bzzzz sounds when she bites on it.

Cold is Going Around

The cold has been going around our house for the past couple of weeks. It seems to pass from one person to the next and I was really hoping that Jasmine would not get it. The luck ran out today though. She caught the sniffles yesterday and all day today, she was sneezing like crazy. Now her nose is running non-stop and she's whiny and crying. Not good.

Sure makes feeding her a chore (not that it wasn't before). I have to wipe her mouth and nose constantly. And because of all the wiping, I have to cream her face and nose all the time too. I am going through boxes and boxes of kleenex, sigh.

Poor Beeps...just don't sneeze on me (like in Portland) and give that cold back to me...

Perfect Baby

Over the past few days, Jasmine has gotten back into a normal routine and sleeping through the night. She's eating well, sleeping well and playing well. She loves playing the game peek-a-boo, kicking a soccer ball and reading books. She's learned how to point at stuff with her left hand (her right hand doesn't seem to know how to point yet) and sometimes she'll give me a high-five too. She's perfect!

A couple of things Jasmine forgot how to do is, drinking from a straw cup and waving bye-bye. Either she forgot how to do it or she doesn't want to do these on command. I gotta train her how to do these things again. But all in all, I wish that she can stay as she is right now. I love her to pieces!

First Halloween

For Jasmine's first Halloween, we weren't thinking of doing much since she can't walk yet and she can't eat any candy either. But we did dress her up a bit. One of Richard's freinds likes to sew and made her a cute costume (thanks KW) when she was born so I pulled it out to see if it fits, and it was still pretty big. The costume was a pink puppy; it had a body made of fleece/felt material and a hat with eyes, nose, red mouth with ears. Since Jasmine's eczema prevens her from wearing anything except cotton, we only put the hat on. Jasmine really doesn't like having anything on her head but we snapped a picture really quickly before she pulled the hat off.


We trick-or-treated at 3 houses and she managed to get alot of chocolate. It's probably because it was raining and most of the houses on our street kept the lights off. Actually, I knocked on our neighbors door (they had their lights off) but they opened the door anyways. They looked so surprised that we were standing there (I guess they weren't expecting to give out any candy). They didn't have any of those small halloween candies to give out...so they gave Jasmine 2 of those large "donation" chocolate bars (the ones that schools sell to make some $$). Haha, SCORE! I ate them both!!! One of the perks of being a Mama.

Anyways so after Halloween, I was shopping at the mall and found some costumes on sale so I picked one up for Jasmine for next year. She's gonna be a cute little bug...unless I find something cuter as we approach Halloween 2009.

I'm Back from Vegas

Just got back from Vegas this afternoon. The four days flew by in a flash. Funny thing is, I feel more tired today than when I first left on Sunday. Gotta catch up on some sleep before the weekend.

Well, Jasmine survived four days without Mom and Dad around. She hung out with my Dad-in-law and Richard's sister the entire time. I called to check in everyday and to find out if there was anything happening. Nothing. I was told that Jasmine was really good, ate and slept well with exception to a couple of nights when she woke up (she usually sleeps through the night). I guess I didn't need to be worried after all.

Jasmine learned a couple of new things this week; she can clap and she bounces around when there is music. So cute. On the trip, we bought an electric dog that barks and walks and jumps...Jasmine loves it. Jasmine screams in delight whenever she sees a dog or cat. I'll post a video up on this later.

Can't Sleep?

Ok, tonight is the second night when I am tired as heck but can't fall asleep. It's 4am in the morning... and Richard is sleeping, Jasmine is sleeping... I should be sleeping too. I can't believe this. Sigh.

There are a few things on my mind which may be the reason why I can't fall asleep:

- we are going to Vegas on Sunday with some friends and Richard's Dad is taking care of Jasmine. Maybe I am worried about whether Jasmine will be ok?
- or maybe I'm worried that I'll miss her too much?
- Jasmine's eczema is acting up. Is it going to be like how it was last winter?
- my job situation is kinda wonky. Am I worried about that?

Whatever it is, I can't sleep. So sleepy...

Separation Anxiety and Sleep Training

While we watched other babies go through separation anxiety, I was thinking how lucky we were, that Jasmine doesn't have it. But it looks like Jasmine has it after all, just slightly later than others. She shows signs of separation anxiety when other people pick her up or if we leave her on her own (we are in the room but watching from afar). This is probably why she is having sleep difficulties now.

Jasmine slept through the night ever since 4 months (I think, can't remember now). And only recently has her sleep gotten pretty bad. She has trouble falling asleep at night and for naps. And she wakes up at night as well. Last night, she woke up 3 times.... I feel lilke I pulled an all-nighter. I'm guessing she doesn't want to be alone.

When we put her to sleep, she just cries and cries in her crib. I really hate hearing her cry. Makes me want to pick her up right away. But she is so cranky and sleepy that even when I am holding her, she is fussy and wailing. So, we end up putting her in the crib anyways. We are going to do some sleep training and see if things will improve. Richard suggests using the CIO (cry it out) method.

This is when you leave the room for 5 minutes, then check on the baby. Then leave the room for 10 minutes and then check on her, then leave for 15 minutes....and slowly increase time intervals until the baby falls asleep. Usually the first night, it can take anywhere from 60 minutes to longer. Then the second night is usually less than that and by the third night, the baby should fall asleep within 10 minutes. The baby learns to self soothe and fall asleep on her own.

Sounds good huh? Well I don't have the willpower to listen to Jasmine cry so Richard will have to stop me from going into the room. He's got alot of work on his hands.

11 Months - One More Month

Jasmine turned 11 months this week - hooray! Just one more month and she'll be 1 years old. I can't believe how time has flown by. She won't be a baby anymore, she's upgrading to being a toddler! Here are some other stats:

- climbing and cruising
- eating really well
- has 4 teeth

It was challenging to take the 11 month pic today. I was taking snaps of Jasmine in the crib and then remembered I needed "the sign". So I went and got the sign, but had no way of keeping the sign up without Jasmine playing with it. If Richard was home, he'd help with that but he's at work.

Anyways in order to get the 11 month sign up, I was doing acrobatic moves. I had to stick my left leg up and use my toes to keep the sign up, meanwhile balancing my weight on my right leg and still had to focus the camera and make Jasmine look at me all at the same time. Boys and girls, don't try this at home....

Here's Jasmine's 11 Month photo:



On a different topic, Jasmine's cheeks have been red and irritated alot lately. You can see them in the pics above. I've been assuming that her drool is making her skin really sensitive. And because Jasmine likes to suck on her sleep sack when she sleeps (wish that she would suck her thumb instead), the saliva on her sleep sack rubs onto her cheek all night long, and making it even worse when she wakes in the morning. I still hate hydrocortisone cream so I'm staying away from it.

Right now, I'm creaming Jasmine's cheeks every hour. I'm alternating between Aubrey Organics face cream, Jamieson Vitamin E cream (30,000IU) and plain old Vaseline. I use the Aubrey Organics cream mostly, with Vitamin E cream next. Just before a nap and right before bed, I smear on a chunk of Vaseline, to keep her cheeks waterproof at night.

I also put a clean bib on Jasmine every 2 hours. Even when she is sleeping, I put a bib on her so that she sucks on the bib instead of her sleep sack. (the sleep sack gets pretty disgusting in the morning, all wet and stuff). We'll see how things go in a few days.

Climbing Everywhere

Lately, Jasmine has been walking every chance she gets and pulling up onto furniture to stand. She's just climbing everywhere, so we have to watch her all the time. She really is turning into a little monkey.

When we put Jasmine to bed tonight, it took her FOREVER to get to sleep. She usually goes down after 10 minutes, but tonight, it took 90 minutes. Me and Richard would lay her down on the bed, turn on the projector, close the door and leave the room. Within 10 seconds, we hear Jasmine screaming and yelling. So we go in and see if she is ok. This is what we find:




Jasmine learned how to climb up in her crib and now she's practicing it in her sleep! How cool is that??? Well, it was kinda funny when it first happened but it stopped being funny quite quickly. Richard and I took turns going into her room and putting her down on the bed. We did this over and over again. I lost count after 10. I can't deal with it so I sit on the couch...

Loves the Water (video)

I still remember the first couple of months when Jasmine was born and she absolutely hated bathtime. Boy, have things changed. Jasmine loves being in the water now.

Here's a video clip of her bathtime:

Jasmine's Friends

Over the past few months, I've been getting together with some friends who had babies around the same age as Jasmine. These are some of Jasmine's friends:

Courtney and Jasmine (Courtney is 2 months older than Jasmine)



Adyson and Jasmine (Adyson is 3 weeks younger than Jasmine)


Megan and Jasmine (Megan is a newborn, 10.5 months younger than Jasmine)


Ty and Jasmine (to follow)

Logan and Jasmine (to follow)

Drool Princess - More Teeth

It's weird, I was just wiping Jasmine's gums today and noticed something poking through on her top gums. It's TWO MORE TEETH!!! Wow, both teeth coming in at the same time. No wonder she's still drooling like crazy. I was going through 7-8 bibs a day (yes, she is drooling that much). She's my drool Princess.

These 2 teeth look like they are coming out straight, unlike the 2 bottom teeth, crooked like heck. It doesn't matter I guess, since these baby teeth will fall out eventually.

Teething = Trouble

I just went through a very stressful day with Jasmine today. Since last Thursday, Jasmine refused to drink all liquids. I offered her water, breast milk, formula, juice. I tried using a bottle, straw sippy cup, rubbermaid juice box and shooter glass but still she wouldn't budge. She just clamped her mouth shut.

I realize now is Jasmine was teething then and she didn't want anything in her mouth. Jasmine ate solids fine though. She just didn't drink anything. That spelled trouble. Without liquids, her body reabsorbed the water that was in her intestinal tract so she had difficulty pooping. I saw her poop get progressively firmer each day and then, she didn't poop at all. I started adding prune juice into everything she ate, hoping it'll help with her condition.

Jasmine teething = no liquids = constipation

Well, what goes in must come out. It was terrible watching Jasmine suffer in pain. She was straining, pushing, screaming, crying... oh man. This went on for over 2 hours. All I could do is hold her up, massage her belly and cycle her legs. I encouraged her by making the pushing sounds myself, hoping she'll understand that she has to do the pushing. Looking into her eyes, I can see her say "Mommy, please make it stop!!!" I feel so terrible.

Finally the poop came out. There were several of them and all were rock hard. Since she didn't poop for a couple of days, there's gotta be more in there. Sure enough, when Richard put Jasmine into her bath, about 5 minutes in, Jasmine did a nice poopie.... in the water. Uh yuck. Well, at the least she got it out without too much work. Good thing Daddy gets to clean up the mess, heehee. And then 2 more big poops in the next 12 hours. Nice job. I guess the prune juice really, really works.

Well, Jasmine's second tooth is full out now and she has resumed drinking from a bottle. Phewf. At least I know that she still likes the milk and it was just her teething that caused all this mess. Let's try to keep all her poops in her diapers from now on?

Pumping - Once a Day

And it's October already and one more month before mat leave ends. I am now pumping breastmilk once a day. Any additional milk needed will be substituted by formula now.

In September, I started pumping twice a day, down from three times a day. (I yielded 14oz at 2 pumps instead of 20oz at 3 pumps/day). I'm guessing I'll get between 6-7 oz now with 1 pumping session.

Jasmine is growing up fast which makes me happy and sad at the same time. Looking back at all the breastfeeding given to Jasmine, I don't really want it to end. I mean, I'm glad she isn't so dependant on me anymore, but yet I really liked the close feeling of having her next to me (especially in the middle of the night).

Things were so peaceful, just me and Jasmine (and Richard's snoring in the other room... hahaha). Alot of times, she would suck, suck, suck and then stop, because she fell asleep on the breast. Those are fond memories. No pics or videos were taken then. It'll be all in my head now. Sigh, these feelings and thoughts will likely come back to me when Jasmine becomes a Mom herself and she goes through all the things that I did this first year. I miss Jasmine already.

10 months - Cruising Away

Jasmine turned 10 months this week. We don't have a doc appointment scheduled for 10 months so we don't know her weight or length. Here are some other stats:

- crawling and cruising (hanging on to things and walking)
- nods her head to music (musical toys)
- can wave hello and bye-bye
- bangs a plastic hammer on things

Jasmine knows how to show her likes and dislikes now; she will let you know when she is unhappy (like when you take her toy away). It's kind of cute really. Here's a pic of when she REALLY WANTED to play with my cellphone... I think she liked the taste of it. It was kind of gooey once I got it back.

I tried to take a regular 10 month pic but she wanted to play with the paper so I couldn't get a good shot. Anyways, here it is.

And look at her tooth! The second tooth is just peeking out now. You can click on the pic to enlarge. PS - the video of Jasmine crawling is up.