New Speakers

Richard recently bought new speakers for our awesome karaoke system.  Um, the system that's sitting collecting dust and hasn't been turned on for like 3 years...LOL.   Just kidding.  We really needed to upgrade our home theatre system.  Well yeah.  He really wanted it and it was on sale so we got it.

These things are huge, even taller than Julia!  These things can make windows shake and the walls rumble.  It's that loud.  Too bad we have a tenant downstairs now. 

Birthday Wishes - 25+1

Hmmm, I can't believe another years gone by already.  Sigh.  What's with the birthdays coming up so fast???  I'm now 25+1, says Jasmine.  Notice the cake has 6 candles?  Josh was already in bed when we cut the cake so he's not in the pic.  He can be so grouchy when he's sleepy. 

 

I've been blessed with having our 3 kiddies.  They can be challenging at times but every day, I think how my life has changed for the better with them in my life.  Mommy will always love you, always.

 

Sick - Passed all around

It seems everyone in the house is sick now:  Richard, J, J, J, and LoYe.  Only Lai Lai and I have been spared.  Jas nicely threw up in her new bed today (she only slept in it since last week) and Josh has a fevers and runny nose.  Richard has fever and cough and Julia is still having the runs.  What virus is this? 

How sad is that?  What a way to end the year.  Let's hope they will all kick the sickness in the behind in the next few days.

Christmas at the Wongs

Merry Xmas to the Leung, Lin and Wong family.  We celebrated the special occasion at the Wong household this year and it was great seeing everyone.  Dad had a fantastic time playing checkers with Jas and all the little cousins enjoyed running around together. 

We first had dinner, which included prime rib, potatoes, noodles, bbq duck and veggie appetizers.  Lunch the next day was veggie curry with leftovers, and for dinner we had pizza and sushi (weird combo?) but very tasty.  Yum. 

All the kids and pets received gifts from Uncles and Aunties and grand parents.  Jas was ecstatic when she pulled out her new Yoshi backpack which she's been wearing since.  Josh sat and looked at all his presents on his very first Christmas.  Julia wanted to tear open all of her gifts.

Mom and Lisa were greatly missed though; maybe next year we'll have everyone together.  Thanks for dropping in and creating another year of holiday memories.

Feeding Strike and Sleeping Through the Night!

Josh has been sick since Sunday, pretty much throwing up after every feeding.  He's now refusing to feed at all.  Every time we bring the bottle to him, he starts fussing, turning his head away and closing his lips like a big pout.  I don't blame him for not wanting to feed.  How terrible. 

He can go for hours without drinking anything which worries me to heck.  I try to offer the bottle to him every hour but he's too smart for that.  I worry that he will be dehydrated. 

Funnily enough though, he slept through the night last night for the very first time.  11pm-7am!  Too bad I spent the entire night next to his crib, waiting for him to wake up from hunger to feed.  How ironic.  This is a pic of him before he got sick.

Emma's Gymnastics Birthday Party

Both of the girls were very excited when they found out they were invited to a gymnastics birthday party!  Woohoo!  They were jumping around, so happy and finished their lunch so quickly.  However, because Josh is sick today and decided to throw up just as we were about to leave the house, we arrived at the party too late.  The gymnastics portion of the party ended already...sorry girls.

We did get there in time for cake cutting and the pinata.  Wow, so many toys and candies in that Hello Kitty pinata.  It was cute watching the girls stuff their pant pockets with all the candies.

We tried getting a pic with Emma but she refused us!  We chased Emma around the room but didn't get a shot. Oh well.  Maybe next time.

Sick, Sick, Sick - Taping Ears

Julia has been sick for the past 3 days, with a stomach bug.  She keeps on telling us that her belly hurts, goes to the bathroom alot (#2) and she's been throwing up.  The worst timing is when she threw up at the dinner table at our friend's xmas party on Saturday... so embarrassing.

Well, it seems her belly is starting to get better, when suddenly, little Josh is bringing up all his milk.  All day Sunday and through the night, he is projectile vomiting after every feed.  He drinks some milk and as soon as I hold him up S-L-O-W-L-Y to burp him, he does an up-chuck all over my shoulder and on the floor.  It was a very long day yesterday (and even at 4am)...

My plan is to feed him in little amounts throughout the day, until he can hold the milk down.  His 9am feeding was 2.5oz and it stayed in!  Hope it gets better from here onwards.

We noticed Josh's ears are sticking out alot so we are being proactive in keeping the ears tight to the head with - band aids!  Apparently the cartilage in the ears don't harden until the 7th month so we can still mold the ears!  Cool.  Wish we knew this when Julia was young.

4 Months - Josh - Moving Rooms

Oh Baby boy, you are getting so big!  He turned 4 months today, all smiley and happy.  We don't go to the docs office until Tuesday so we will give the official stats then.  

Today is the day we also moved Josh into the baby room.  We moved Julia into the girl's room last night and she LOVES sleeping on the bottom bunk.  Jasmine also loves sleeping on the top bunk.  It's a privilege to be up there, since Julia is not allowed up there.  Her own private space.  

Still Sleeping at 2am

Unfortunately Josh is still sleeping extra extra late - tonight at 2:45am.  I can't believe it's already been 3 weeks of this.  Josh seems so tired at night but just won't fall asleep.  Or rather, he can fall asleep but keeps on waking every 45 minutes or so.  Please, please, wish this phase goes by quickly.  (it's so hard to get angry at this sweet face...)

Adyson's Birthday - First Time Bowling

The kids were so excited today, waiting to go bowling for the very first time.  Adyson invited us to her birthday party in Coquitlam.  Both kiddies bowled with the help of Daddy while Josh hung out with Mommy in the Ergo.  Everyone had a terrific time.  There was home-made cake pops for everybody.  Thanks Adyson for a terrific time!

Bonked Nose - Poor Jas

I haven't received a call from school in a LONG LONG time... and then today, the phone rang.  Jas was at the principal's office for an accidental fall.  Jas fell down the stairs today and hit her head.  They put Jas on the phone and I asked if she'd like to go home but she declined.  She says it didn't hurt.  When she got home, this is what her face looked like:

It's not too bad compared to what I've seen before and Jas didn't seem affected by it at all.  

New Sleep Time - 2am!

Why, why, why is he not sleeping?

For the past few nights, Josh has been sleeping extra late.  Really late.  Like 2am late.  From 9pm to 2am are his witching hours it seems.  No matter what we try, he's an unhappy fellow.  Crying, whining, rubbing eyes.  We feed him, burp him, change him, cuddle him, carry him, rock him...

He was sleeping around 11pm for a while which was a huge improvement compared to when he was first born (then was 4am).  But it's back to this again.  I try to keep him up awhile during the day and put him into bed when he shows me the sleepy cues, usually 1 hour and 15 minutes after he wakes. His daily schedule looks kinda like this:

5:30am - 4oz milk and goes back to sleep

9am - wake

9:15am - 4oz milk

10:15am - nap (2 hours)

12:15pm - wake

12:30pm - 4oz milk

1:30pm - nap (2 hours)

3:30pm - wake

3:45pm - 4oz milk

5pm - nap 

After this, it gets tricky.  In the evening, it's all over the place, no schedule.  We haven't had a good night - EVER. Sometimes he takes a 30 minute nap and sometimes he sleeps for 2 hours.  I actually don't know if I should wake him up after an hour, as he becomes Mr. Cranky pants. 

I find that he cluster feeds at night though, drinking 3 x 4oz bottles of breastmilk in 6 hours and he usually intakes around 27oz total each day.  So tiring.  Oh Mr. Josh, please will you sleep better soon?

Lucius 1st Birthday

We were happy to visit little Lucius for his first birthday party.  It was at his house which had a slide, little toys and lots of food.  The wonderful thing was there were lots of older kids who were playing with their video games the entire time so the kiddies were preoccupied which is great for mommy and daddy.  While the kiddies played, Mom and Dad went and got their pics drawn:

When it was cake cutting time, there were 3 cakes!  Yup, 3.  One was chocolate and the other was like a green tea specialty one.  The 3rd one was the smash cake.  Little Lucius was too little and couldn't smash it up so he let the bigger kids get it done.  Jas took a jab at it but the big boys finished it off.  

Samantha's 1st Bday Party

 

We were invited to Samantha`s first birthday party in Richmond.  We haven`t seen Samantha since she was a wee baby.  She`s grown so much.  She is crawling and can walk if you hold her hand now. 

We were too busy playing with the big kid toys that we didn`t get a picture with Samantha... oops.  We had a super fun time.  Thanks for having us! 

Jasmine - Another Birthday

 

It is Jas' birthday today but we didn`t host a party this year.  There`s just too much going on, especially with a new baby.  Jas did celebrate at school though so we made cupcakes with a Mario theme.  Yoshi is the new favorite!  

 

Because we only found out about Yoshi last week, we could only find a small Yoshi plush doll and some t-shirts for her.  I also managed to find free Mario birthday things on the net including cupcake topper and chocolate wrappers so I think we pulled it off.  What do you think? 

 

 

 

 

Just after we cut the cake, little Josh wanted attention all to himself so I had to hide in the bedroom with him... for the next 2 hours!  My ice cream cake looked like this before someone remembered me...  boo. (still edible though!)

New Friends - William and Leah

After sleeping and eating for 3 months, Josh is finally well rested enough to meet some new friends.  This week, he met William and Leah for play dates.  In this pic, Josh and William are lounging on the couch, like old friends already.    

Here, Leah and Josh are chilling on the tummy mat.  She couldn't keep her hands off him...  kept poking him in the ear and eyes...  LOL.  The kiddies are at such a cute age.  Hoping we can get together to play again soon.

3 Months - Josh

Joshua turns 3 months today.  There is no doctor's appointment until the 4th month so we'll have to wait another month for official stats.  But we did weigh him on our home scale and he's around 17lbs... big boy! 

Josh is starting to smile much more and he's learned how to bat at the hanging toys.  He absolutely hates tummy time but we put him down for 10 minutes every few hours anyways.  Here he is modeling on the tummy mat.

7 Hours Straight!

Over the past week, Josh has been sleeping better at night - sometimes up to 5 hours straight.  But just last night, he slept from 12:30-7:30am!  7 hours!  We've waiting for this to happen. 

I remember Julia first did a 7-hour sleep when she was 10 weeks old.  Josh is 11 weeks+5 days now so he's not that far behind.  Let's hope this continues. 

No More Birdies Please

As we all know, Jas loves the Angry Birds.  She draws them, sleeps with them, carries the dolls and figures around.  But today, as I prepped her new top bunk bed with Angry Bird sheets, she suddenly said, "I don't like Angry Birds anymore.  Can you return it?"

I'm thinking, holy mollies!  She doesn't like Angry Birds?  Over the past few months, I've purchased several Angry Bird items for her birthday surprise.  We have Angry Bird bedding, blanket, back pack, light-up shoes, clothes.  And now I have to return EVERYTHING???  Luckily, we were able to return most of the items (except the bedding and blanket since they've been washed).

Here are a couple of pics with Jas saying goodbye to the Angry Birds.  She doesn't want to have anything to do with them anymore.  I'm now on the hunt for her new love:  Yoshi!   with her birthday coming up in 6 days...

Nice thing is little Julia still seems interested in the birdies.  She's shown here pretending she is the yellow bird.

Halloween Scare - Hospital Visit

Everyone in the house was getting excited about Halloween, decorating the house, wearing costumes to school, getting the candies ready by the door.  But in the end, no one got to do any trick or treating today.

We had quite a scare today.  Little Jas had a party on her own and ended up in the Emergency at Burnaby.  She came home from school and decided to sneak a candy to eat (crispy crunch), which came from Julia`s bag, from her preschool.  After 5 minutes, she got a belly ache.  It hurt so bad she had to tell someone.  And then her lips and face started swelling. 

I knew instantly she ate something with peanuts in it.  So I asked Jas what she ate.  She denied it.  Nothing she says.  I told her that I know she ate peanut.  The father-in-law comes upstairs and shows me the candy wrapper.  Yup, has peanuts in it.  I gave her Benadryl right away but her face continued to swell so I called 9-1-1.  The operator told me to give her the epipen.  Then Jas started to throw up everywhere.

The ambulance came and took her to Burnaby hospital to be assessed.  They gave her 2 additional shots and lots of Benadryl.  At the hospital, Jas threw up some more.  We finally left around 11pm at night.  So, for Halloween, no one got to go trick or treating.  Cost us a small fortune too, for the ambulance.  Luckily we have extended health to cover the costs.

I'm certain Jas learned something from this incident, as she's NEVER eaten peanut in her life.  Shots, throwing up, belly ache, swollen face/lip.  All the pleasant side effects she got.  I wonder if she'll remember this when she grows up?

Here are a couple of pics:        1)  Rashes around her neck 

 

2)  2 needle marks

Halloween Carnival

 

The kids went to a Halloween carnival today, at the community center by our house.  Unfortunately, Joshua woke up late from his nap, just as everyone was leaving the house so I stayed behind to feed him.

 

The kids had a blast.  Both Jas and Jules dressed up, as a hockey player and butterfly.  There was face painting, bouncy castle, stickers and best of all, chocolate treats!  Yum.