Max & Jalen's Blog

Snowpocalypse 2012

2012-01-20T23:39:00.000-08:00

This past week, the weather forecast predicted a record setting snow storm heading our way. On Sunday, Jan. 15, we got a few inches of snow with more promised on Monday. The kids' daycare closed early on Monday and I worked from home to be on the safe side. On Tuesday, there was still some snow on the ground but I made it into work via public transit no problem. Wednesday was supposed to be the big snow day and we got about 6 inches in Bellevue. It really wasn't that much snow but after that we got an ice storm on Thursday. Daycare was closed on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday! I worked from home all 3 days with both kids at home. We were pretty tired of being stuck at home for that long. Finally on Friday, we made it out of the house and went out for dinner. Yay!

Here are the boys all bundled up in their snow pants.

Max was not impressed with the snow. He was paralysed when we got outside.

Jalen was very enthusiastic. He jumped right in and made a snow angel.

Look at those real tears from Max from us making him sit on the snow.

Christmas 2011

2012-01-02T00:10:00.000-08:00

Jalen and I spent many hours covering this entire gingerbread house with icing and candy. I had an ulterior motive, to get rid of all of the candy that has been sitting around since Valentine's Day (hence the candy hearts). It was so much fun spending time with Jalen this way. He even came up with the idea of using the white M&M's as gloves.

Here is Christmas morning and it was hard to get both kids look at the camera at the same time and smile. This is one of those moments where I wish I had the Microsoft "to the cloud" thing where you can swap out faces of the picture.

Jalen and Max playing with their new Christmas presents.

Sometimes Jalen pushes Max around in a laundry basket and plays choo choo. Max loves it and giggles while I brace for a bad crash.

The Darn Things Kids Say

2011-12-28T23:52:00.000-08:00

I don't know when it happened but all of a sudden, Jalen is starting to say grown up sounding things:

[after I made him waffle for breakfast] "Thank you for making me waffles mommy, they are the best waffles I've ever tasted!"
[after I put on makeup to go out, he looks at me] "Your eyes look beautiful!"
[on Christmas] Gracie says "I got the Cars 2 DVD from grandma!", Jalen says "yeah, we have the BLU-RAY!"
[after I took a picture of the "birthday cake" he made me] "Thank you mommy for taking a picture of the cake so I can remember to make it for you every year".

Halloween

2011-11-26T00:11:00.000-08:00

We had a fun Halloween this year with Jalen as a fireman and Max as an adorable monkey. Jalen was nice and warm in his fireman gear and went out into the neighborhood with his cousins.

October Pictures

2011-11-26T00:00:00.000-08:00

One day, I went to pick up Max at daycare and found him wearing this tutu. His teacher said that the kids love the texture and they usually try to take them off the boys before the parents pick up. I just had to snap some photos -- for future black mail purposes.

Here is Max striking a pose when I whipped out my phone. He is with his best bud Cordell. Cordell doesn't look amused however.

September Pictures

2011-11-25T23:52:00.000-08:00

Here is Jalen at American Eagle Outfitters. He styled himself by picking out this tie, glasses and both watches.

Jalen and Grace spent all afternoon on the beach at Newcastle Beach Park playing with sand. I think if we let them, they could have played there all day.

Here we are at the Olive Garden to celebrate Grandpa's birthday. It was the never-ending pasta and salad bowls special!

Sharing is caring

2011-09-16T23:01:00.000-07:00

Jalen has been a great big brother to Max including sharing his favorite things like desserts. Here they are eating a fudge pop and making a big mess of their faces. It's also been nice to be able to hang out on the deck after dinner while the weather is nice. Our house is west facing and usually the kids love being outside because it's much cooler.

Oldie but goodies

2011-09-16T22:05:00.000-07:00

I was cleaning up my laptop and found these great old videos of Jalen and Max. It's hard to remember how little Jalen was and how he sounded as a baby. They really grow up so fast.

Here's a video of Jalen at 23 months. He was really into a lot of pop songs at that age. Some of his favorites were Low by Flo Rida, Right Now by Akon and (Like a cop car) Mrs. Office by Lil Wayne. Here Rick is trying to get Jalen to sing Like a Cop Car and Jalen wasn't having it.

This is the morning after Max was born and Jalen meeting his little brother for the first time. Apparently, Grandma had a hard time seeing that Max's tiny newborn eyes were wide open for the occasion.

Max is almost 3 months here cooing away and Jalen marveling at his baby brother finally being able to interact with us. This was the beginning of my two boys bonding and becoming playmates.

Max's growing vocabulary

2011-08-23T23:42:00.001-07:00

Max is really starting to jabber a lot. Rick guessed that he has at least 10 words so we tried to count them on our hands:

mama
dada
gaga = cracker
nai nai = milk (in Chinese)
shoos = shoes
book
car
ball
hi
bye
mum mum = food
juice
MINE

"Mine" is the word he says with the most enthusiasm. He screams this whether Jalen takes something away from him. Max is quite possessive. Once we were having dinner and we parked the stroller next to our table. Jalen decided to sit in it for a second and Max screamed "mine! mine!" like the seagulls in Finding Nemo. Max wasn't even sitting in it! He definitely is the second child who knows that he has to stake his territory.

Jalen and Max goofing off

2011-08-08T23:31:00.001-07:00

I just love it when the boys get along and play together. Here is Max babbling away and being silly with Jalen.

Max is 1.5 years old!

2011-08-08T22:30:00.000-07:00

Max turned 18 months old last Monday on August 1 and we took him to his check up on Tuesday. He is now 24lb 12oz (25 - 50%) and 33.5" (75-90%). We're very excited that he's catching up on weight now since he had been at 25th percentile since 12 months old. Max is at an adorable age right now, babbling all the time and waddling all over the place. He is really coming into his own little person. I can't wait to get to know him more as he learns to communicate with us in new ways.

Best buds

2011-07-31T23:08:00.000-07:00

Since I am an only child, I've always looked forward to the day that my boys would grow up into playmates. Jalen has been such a great big brother to Max. If I need to leave Max in his crib for a few minutes, Jalen will gladly climb in and keep him company. They love to jump in the crib and play peek a boo with their baby blankets. Now that Max is little older, he is starting to be pretty particular about which of Jalen's toys that he wants to play with. Sometimes, the boys do fight over the same toy. But for the most part they're happier when they're together.

Day out with Thomas

2011-07-31T22:36:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago we took Jalen to visit his favorite character, Thomas the Tank Engine. Jalen actually wasn't as excited about the real life Thomas as we had expected. He was wondering where all Thomas' friends were. Nevertheless, it was a cute train ride where we got to see a great view of the Snoqualmie Falls. Jalen had a lot of fun with his two best buds Katelyn and Trenton.

4th of July Weekend

2011-07-07T23:19:00.000-07:00

We had a full and fun long weekend. My parents came to visit and spent time with the kids. We hosted a BBQ on Saturday and went to a BBQ on Sunday and Monday. For the 4th, we went to the annual Newport Hills celebration where Katelyn and Jalen had a great time playing together. Jalen was too tired for the fireworks so Rick and I watched the shows on TV. We actually have a peek a boo view of the Lake Union fireworks from our house! It was funny watching it happen then again 7 seconds later on "live" TV.

Max's baby steps

2011-07-07T23:15:00.001-07:00

We were very excited when we heard Max started walking when we were away in Vegas at the end of May. However, his whole medical ordeal really put a halt to his progress. Just last week, he started taking tentative steps again. I love the way babies put up their arms like a zombie when they first learn to walk. It's too cute.

Max's Medical Ordeal

2011-07-07T22:26:00.001-07:00

On the Sunday before Memorial Day Max woke up from his nap with a fever. We gave him some Tylenol and hoped that he would recover before the long weekend was over. Unfortunately, his fever didn't go away. The Tuesday after the holiday was my first day at my new job so Rick decided to stay home. He took Max to the pediatrician and we were told to keep an eye on his fever and bring him back in if the fever doesn't go away after a couple of days. We kept him home on Wednesday and by Thursday I took him to the doctor again since his fever still hasn't broken. This time, the doctor did a strep culture and checked his ears again for a possible ear infection. Both were negative. That weekend we took our trip to Vancouver and Max had a high fever on both days. I was especially worried on Sunday when his fever was high all day. During this whole time, Max was really sluggish and had low appetite. It just broke my heart to see him not eating and losing weight. We took Max to the pediatrician again and this time they took blood work. The results showed an elevated white cell count which could be the result of either viral or bacterial infection. The pediatrician requested that we get a chest x-ray for Max to rule out pneumonia. The chest x-ray turned out to be negative. The next day, Rick took Max to the pediatrician to get a urine sample. The poor child was dehydrated so they couldn't get any liquid out of him. Rick was really upset about spending 2 hours at the doctor's office and not getting anywhere closer as to why Max has had a fever for 10 days. We were in a holding pattern for the next 2 days and by Friday, I really wanted to get Max checked out again before the weekend so I took him in one more time. The doctor was still stumped and did all the routine exams again. She urged that we take Max to the ER at Children's hospital to get more tests. I really didn't want to spend a night at the ER but I was also feeling really uneasy about Max being sick for so long. So Ricky's parents watched Jalen while the two of us took Max to Children's hospital. They examined him, did blood work, took urine sample and swabs. After all that, we were no closer to knowing why he's had a fever for almost 2 weeks but at least the doctor didn't raise any alarms that there might be something really serious going on. We spent another day waiting for results and on Sunday, we took him into the office again and this time, it seemed like he has developed an ear infection. The doctor finally prescribed some antibiotics. His fever finally subsided Sunday night and he was fever free for 24 hours for the first time on Monday. During this entire ordeal Ricky's parents helped us by watching Max at our house. We were so grateful that they did this because we don't know what we would've done instead. Especially with me at my new job, I would have really been in a bind. So after all was said and done, here's the tally:

number of days with fever over 101: 14
number of visits to the pediatrician: 5
number of hours spent at the ER: 3.5
number of doctors seen: 4
number of failed urine test attempts: 4
number of blood tests: 2

Max was actually very sweet and good at the ER. We kept him busy with crackers and we watched the Lion King on TV.

A happy side effect of Max being sick was that he was super cuddly. He just wanted to be hugged and held all the time.

Trip to Vancouver

2011-06-12T22:34:00.001-07:00

We had been so busy that we hadn't visited Vancouver for about 6 months! On the first weekend of June, I decided last minute that we should go to Vancouver because the Vancouver Canucks made it to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 1994. Game 2 was Saturday June 3 and I knew the atmosphere was going to be amazing. My parents kindly took care of the kids while Rick and I went to down town and enjoyed the game with our friends. It was so much fun. It almost made up for us missing the 2010 Olympics because it was right around the time that I gave birth to Max.

Here are all my boys together. It was hard to get all of them to smile and look at the camera at the same time but still all adorable!

Max's first steps

2011-06-02T23:09:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in an earlier post, 90% of 15 months old toddlers are walking. Max was not one of them. We encourage him to walk all the time and he seems to have the strength and balance to do it but he won't. So last Tuesday, me and Rick took a last minute trip before I started my new job. We called home to speak to Jalen and the first thing he said to us was "Max is walking." We were like what?! Apparently, when Rick's parents picked Max his teachers at daycare said he started walking. And sure enough, he took a few steps towards Rick's mom at pick up. I was bummed that we missed that but with Max being in full time day care since before 1 year old, I figured I was going to miss some firsts. When we got home on May 26, he did take a few steps towards us back and forth. Since then, the child has kind of regressed. He won't stay up even though he can stand on his own. Anyway, 99% of 18 months olds are walking and let's hope Max is not that last 1%.

Jalen is 4 years old!

2011-05-20T10:37:00.000-07:00

It feels like we were celebrating Jalen's 4th birthday for over a week. On May 7th, we had a joint birthday party for Jalen and Trenton. This is the first year I completely outsourced the birthday party and it was the best thing ever! We had the party at a bouncy house called Kidz Bounce and they basically took care of everything. They even provided place settings and balloon bouquets at each table. We had about 20 kids at the party and they all had a fantastic time. Jalen was very happy to have quite a few of his preschool friends at the party.

Then on his birthday, we had a play date at our house with his two best friends, Trenton and Katelyn. The kids had a screamin' good time, literally. I don't know what it was but the kids were constantly screaming in excitement while playing. Afterwards, we went to the new Disney Store at Bellevue Square and let him build his own custom Disney Cars character. He chose a custom Mater. Then we went to Cheesecake Factory for dinner where he enjoyed a birthday sundae.

On Monday, the day after his birthday, I brought some ice cream sandwiches as treats for his friends at preschool. Jalen got a birthday crown and his friends sang happy birthday to him. Phew... What a lucky kid.

Today, I took him to his 4th birthday checkup. Jalen has grown like a champ. He is 40lb 6oz (50-75%) and 42" (90-95%). Yes, I'm a proud mommy and I'd like to take credit for his excellent growth rate. :)

Max is 15 months old!

2011-05-11T13:38:00.001-07:00

Our lives have been so hectic that I've been pretty behind in my blog posts. In fact, I feel quite guilty that I didn't take pictures of Max on his month birthdays. For his 15 month milestone, I took him to his wellness checkup. Max is now 22lb 9oz (25%) and 31.25" (50% - 75%). He is following the 25th percentile curve quite consistently since his 12 months checkup after having been at the 50th percentile curve for his first year. Our pediatrician says not to worry too much about his weight gain. Many toddlers are quite picky with food. I'm just not used to it because Jalen was always and still is a great eater. Max is still not walking whereas 90% of 15 month olds are walking. The doctor says not to worry unless he is still not walking by 18 months. My friend Dorothy's daughter didn't walk until 19 months and she's doing great now. I just keep telling myself not to worry, he will walk when he's ready.

Max is doing much better at daycare now. He is eating better, at least according to his daily report card. He still wakes up once in the middle of the night a few times a week. Luckily, he goes back to sleep fairly quickly such that it doesn't interrupt my sleep for too long. On the nights that he does sleep through, I wake up so refreshed it seems like I've been sleeping for 10 hours when it's only like 6. I can't wait until both kids are both sleeping through consistently so I can finally get good sleep at night.

Max's hot and cold appetite

2011-04-16T21:02:00.000-07:00

One of the biggest reasons why this year has been so stressful so far is that Max is turning out to be a challenging kid to feed. He ate great when he was just eating baby food but when we transitioned to table food he became very unpredictable. I started experimenting with different things that I thought he would like: scrambled eggs with cheese (nope), instant oatmeal (yes!), yogurt (sometimes), avocado (his favorite), fish (maybe)... The most frustrating part is that sometimes he will eat a full meal of say, salmon, and the next day if I offer him the same thing, he won't eat it. Mornings are the hardest when I try to get him dressed and fed and still get out the door at an reasonable hour. Some mornings I'll offer him up to 3 different things and he won't eat any of it. Nowadays, I discovered that he likes instant oatmeal so I've been feeding it to him everyday. Luckily, I can prepare it pretty quickly. Dinners are harder because I can't exactly give him the same thing everyday. My first attempt is always to give him what we're eating but cut up in small pieces. When he rejects that, I'll perhaps heat up some left overs that he showed interest in the night before. When he pushes that away too, I might go to the old stand by of avocado. Sometimes, I think he purposely holds out for him favorite. The reason I say that is because after I give in and offer his favorite, he'll eat some of the other things that he rejected earlier! So infuriating!

Staying above water

2011-03-23T22:38:00.001-07:00

2011 has been kicking my butt. Since the beginning of the year, I feel like I've been struggling to find some balance and routine in my life. Every time I think I'm barely getting the hang of it, something happens to change things. After a while, I'm really just forced to roll with the punches and expect the unexpected.

This week is a great example. On Tuesday, I had a dentist appointment in the morning. I decided to work from home since I had no meetings. Around 2pm, I get a call from the kids' school that Max is sick. He threw up and has a temperature of 101. I decide to pick him up earlier than normal but didn't end up getting him until around 5:30pm. Luckily, he was in a good mood. But coming home with a fever means that he can't go to school the next day. So I call around for reinforcements since Wednesday is a meeting filled day for me. I managed to find morning and afternoon coverage between Rick and his parents. Tonight, Max still had a slight fever of 100 before bed. I have to hope and pray that he wakes up without fever so that he can go to school and hope he doesn't get sent home again.

Lately, my routine has been a bit like this:

2am - 6:30am - Max will wake up any time in this range. I give him a bottle. I really should try to soothe him without it but I'm too sleepy and don't want to wake up Jalen. So I take the easy route and give him the milk.

7am - I get up and get myself ready for work

8am - I wake up Max and get him ready for school. Sometimes he wakes up earlier, around 7:30am. I just let him cry/whine in his crib.

8:30am - I leave and take the bus to work. Rick gets Jalen ready and drops both kids off to school.

9:30am - 5:30pm - work at the office

5:30pm - 6:30pm - commute home by bus, pick up Jalen and Max from school

6:30pm - 8:30pm - cook dinner, feed the kids, and get them to bed. lately, Rick has been working late, so 2 -3 nights out of the week I'm on my own. This part of the day gets pretty tough.

8:30pm - 12am - wash dishes, catch up on chores, then more work. We'll faithfully watch Glee on Tuesday nights but other than that, we're both just hammering away at the lap top.

rinse and repeat.

Max's one year photo shoot

2011-02-27T21:47:00.001-08:00

I finally got around to scheduling Max's one year photo shoot. He got his very first haircut a couple of weeks ago in preparation for this event. His hair was standing up straight for a long time until it got so long that it started laying down flat. So we thought it was finally time to cut it. Here are some of my favorite shots.

Jalen was a great helper at the photo shoot, propping Max up in the group shots. He was a real ham, just having a great time and laughing up a storm. He looks so mature in these photos, you couldn't tell that he's not even 4 years old yet. He looks so grown up and handsome!

These shots of Max and Jalen together are my absolute favorites. These images feel like sweet rewards of all the hard work we've put into raising our kids.

Max is one year old!

2011-02-13T23:23:00.000-08:00

My baby turned 1 on Feb. 1, 2011. We celebrated by going to our neighborhood Red Robin. Max devoured a whole half of avocado, nibbled on some french fries and then got his first taste of ice cream. Because it was a Tuesday night, Red Robin made a special appearance which didn't faze Max at all but totally freaked out Jalen.

On Friday, Feb. 4, I took Max for his one year check up. He was 20lb 11oz (10 - 25%) and 31" (75 - 90%). His weight gain growth curve has slowed down since he was in the 50th percentile at his 9 months visit. I explained he recently transitioned to table food from baby food and just started day care. The doctor said it was understandable given the circumstances and asked that we follow up in 6 weeks to check his weight again. So now I have to focus on fattening Max up!

Max's first birthday party

2011-02-09T22:57:00.000-08:00

I had a long struggle figuring out what to do with Max's first birthday party. We hosted Jalen's first birthday party at our house when we had about 10 kids around the age of 1 and their parents. The kids were easy to contain and the adults had a good time. This time around, the same 10 kids are 3 years old and will have too much energy and not enough space to work it off if I were to have the party at home again. At the same time, I really didn't have the time or energy to clean the house pre party and post party. I didn't want to have the party at a bouncy house or something similar because then the party would be for the siblings and not really about Max. Maybe I was making things too hard for myself but my criteria for the party were: 1) not at my house 2) a buffet style lunch. After some trial and error we found the perfect location at Rick's friend Duke's restaurant. They had a private area for parties where we had 2 dedicated waiters. The party went off without a hitch and I was very relieved and happy at the end of it.

Tales from daycare

2011-02-09T22:44:00.000-08:00

I've been in pure survival mode the past 4 weeks that I haven't been able to update the blog. On Jan. 17, Max started daycare at Newport. He was fine at drop off but at 12pm, I got a call from the school. They said he was very upset and not eating or drinking! I was frantic, trying to figure out how to clear my schedule for the rest of the afternoon so I could rescue him ASAP. Daddy's suggestion was to just leave him there. No way! Apparently he cried himself to sleep around 1pm and slept for about 45 min. I picked him up at 3pm and he was desperate to see me. For the rest of the first week, he ate very little and drank very little. So I had to make sure that I fed him as big of a breakfast and dinner as possible. I typically pick him up around 6pm and his face is always raw and red from crying and being tired. It's so hard to see that. On top of everything, Jalen came home with a fever of 102 that week and was sick.

The second week at daycare, Max was sent home Monday with a fever of 103. As per standard school policy, he had to stay away a minimum of 24 hours. I was stuck since I had a meeting I had to go to the next day. Luckily, my former nanny was able to come that day and relieve me.

Now he's in his 4th week of daycare and he's doing a lot better. It's amazing how quickly kids adapt to their environment. During week 1, he didn't drink whole milk and he didn't know how to use a sippy cup. Now, he drinks whole milk out of a sippy cut and self feeds. Here's a video of him eating spaghetti.

Max is 11 months old!

2011-01-08T00:08:00.000-08:00

Happy new year! Our little Max is almost 1 year old! At 11 months, he has 2 bottom teeth and 2 budding top teeth. He can crawl, cruise, pull himself to a standing position and gracefully sit down from standing. In early December, I got word from Jalen's daycare/preschool that they will have a spot open for Max starting Jan. 17! Since then, I've been frantically trying to prepare Max to go to daycare. He will have to learn very quick! So we're been introducing people food to him such as tofu, avocado and carrots. Since then, he's been showing that he's tired of bland baby food and is more and more excited to eat our food.

For this portion of the photoshoot, my dad tried to flatten Max's natural fauxhawk. See how the hair is just fighting to stand back up?

What is this relic? Is that an iPhone 2G?

Here's Max at 11 months...

Here's Jalen at about 10 months. Jalen had a much chubbier face but in this picture, they look a lot a like!

Christmas Day

2010-12-30T23:39:00.000-08:00

This is the first year that Jalen, at 3 and a half, really got excited about Christmas. He knew that it was the day he got to open presents. And he knew there were lots of presents waiting for him! On Christmas morning, he came into our bed and managed to wait until about 9am before we started opening presents. We opened presents from friends at home then went over to Grandma and Grandpa's to open the rest of the presents.

This Toy Story 3 Lego set was on Jalen's wish list. He says "the Claw! the Claw!"

Here is Max with his classic Eeyore look with cousin Taylor.

Jalen was so excited to finally get his lady bug Pillow Pet. He has seen the TV commercial every morning. After making it into a pillow, he asked "Mommy, can you help me turn this into a cozy animal?"

Max and the Christmas Tree

2010-12-30T23:21:00.000-08:00

It's hard to remember what Jalen's first Christmas was like... He was 7 months old and was sitting up but not yet crawling... So he probably was pretty contained and not getting into the ornaments. Max is now 10 months and fully mobile. His favorite ornament is this little Christmas book. He loves to pull on it. We just cross our fingers and hope that he doesn't pull the tree down with it.

This is a guilty look if I ever saw one...

OK, you caught me but I'm cute!

Gingerbread House

2010-12-30T23:08:00.000-08:00

And we're back on Blogger! I like the sequential flow of this blog and with the kids I need to have things in order for me to remember what's what!

The week before Christmas, Jalen and I put together a gingerbread house. I put the icing on and he carefully placed the candies onto the house. It's so interesting to see how orderly he placed the candies (see the perfect row of dots on the spine of the roof).

Carefully picking up a dot...

then placing it just so...

Tada! The finished product. Daddy helped to make the Santa and the tree in front of the house. So cute!

New home on tumbler

2010-10-16T22:58:00.000-07:00

Max and Jalen have a new home on the internet: http://maxandjalen.tumblr.com. Tumblr is a little easier to use and now that I have a good camera on my phone, I can start taking and sharing more pictures and videos of the kids.

Bath time accident

2010-10-16T22:03:00.000-07:00

Max is 8 months old!

2010-10-04T22:53:00.000-07:00

Our little Max is 8 months old! He is now on 3 meals of solid foods per day: breakfast, lunch and dinner. He eats green beans, sweet potatoes, oatmeal and rice cereal. He also drinks about 24 oz of milk/formula per day. He wakes up every morning around 7am for his morning feeding then goes back to sleep until almost 10am. He takes an afternoon nap around 1pm. He goes to bed each night around 8:30pm after I feed him in the evening. I nurse him just in the morning and evening and I must say I really enjoy that cuddle time with my Max.

It took Max quite a while to sit up independently. In fact, he's still not that good at it. He really prefers crawling. If you put a toy in front of him, he will wiggle out of his Bumbo and drag his body towards it. In fact, we can entertain him for quite a while just making him crawl and roll around the floor for his toys.

Fun with finger foods! Max can grab these little star shaped snacks but he doesn't quite know how to get it into his mouth yet. He has one bottom tooth that just popped up last weekend.

Yummy sweet potato and rice cereal for lunch! He's pretty fast at eating solids now.

Jalen hugging his little brother while they both stare at the TV.

Check out my Chucks!

Uh oh, did I undo my shoe laces?

Do the Puyallup

2010-09-29T19:55:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday we took Jalen to the Puyallup Fair. It was a gorgeous summer-like day and the Fair was unusually crowded. It took us over an hour to get to the Fair but the good news was that Jalen slept the whole time. By the time we got there, he was ready to go. He really loved the rides. We all had a good time. It's so much fun being able to enjoy the Fair with Jalen. I just can't wait until the day that we can take him to Disneyland! See more pictures in this album on Facebook.

Recent Max and Jalen

2010-09-24T22:13:00.000-07:00

Max is 7 months old!

2010-09-08T21:46:00.000-07:00

Our little Max is 7 months old! He still doesn't know how to sit by himself yet. He still has no teeth. He also is not that excited about eating solids. But he loves to smile and laugh and he loves to bounce in his Jumperoo.

Max's daily schedule goes something like this:

7am - first feeding of the morning, I put Max back to bed
10am - bottle of formula, possible morning nap
12pm - rice cereal
1pm - bottle of formula, then nap
4pm - bottle of formula
6:30pm - I get home and feed Max
8:30pm - I feed Max putting him to bed

We're trying to fit solid foods into this schedule. The goal is to get him on 3 feedings of solids by the time he's 9 months. Last week, we just introduced sweet potatoes. I think he prefers it over just plain old rice cereal!

The Fair at the PNE

2010-09-03T10:30:00.000-07:00

Rick and I both have fond memories of the PNE Fair in Vancouver. It's the annual affair that signals the last hurrah before school starts again. This year was extra special because it was the 100th anniversary of the Fair. Last Saturday, we celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary by taking Jalen with us to the Fair. He was a little cranky and overwhelmed at first but some french fries and BBQ'ed chicken warmed him up. Then after the Superdogs show he was exhausted and passed out in his stroller for about an hour. He woke up groggy but then warmed back up for some kiddy rides. All in all, a good time was had by both kiddy and parents.

A real Canadian army truck... wait, we have an army?

A Canadian pilot and fighter plane!

Watching real cowboys herd cows, man they were fast and amazing!

The helicopter ride!

too much fun...

We couldn't have asked for a better day to go to the PNE. Apparently, thousands of other people thought so too.

Max's 6 month check up

2010-08-21T23:12:00.000-07:00

On Aug. 10 I took Max to his 6 months check up. He was 17lb 15 oz(50 - 75%) and 26.75" (50-75%). He's growing proportionally and doing great. He does have some eczema on the back of his head so I was told to start putting hydrocortizone cream on his head until it clears up.

We started giving him rice cereal on his 6 months birthday once a day. More accurately the nanny gives it to him once a day. She says it took him about 3 days to get the hang of it. I've been so busy between work and the kids that I haven't had the energy to experiment with any new foods. The last week Max and Jalen have both been under the weather. Max hasn't been eating so well, so the solid food experiment is slightly on hold. He sleeps great though. I usually put him down around 8:30pm and he sleeps until 9am. I typically wake him up at 7am to feed him then put him back down to sleep. I'm so thankful that Max is easy in the morning because I have to feed Jalen and get him ready for school. At least lately, Jalen hasn't been throwing as many tantrums about going to school. I have Jalen on a routine of get dressed, breakfast and a little TV. I tell him that he can watch 1 episode (one of Thomas, Bob the Builder, Dora, Ni Hao Kai Lan or Diego) and he turns off the TV when it's done by himself.

Amazon company picnic

2010-08-21T22:39:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday we went to the annual Amazon company picnic at the Mountain Meadow Farm in North Bend, WA about 30 miles outside of Seattle. It was 90 degrees with very little breeze. Although they had lots of fun activities for kids to do, Jalen wasn't really in the mood for it. So we pretty much just ate in the shade then left.

Here we are, camped out under the shade. Jalen is sitting on the grass and eating ice cold fruit after eating a hot dog.

I brought a towel for Jalen thinking that he'd want to play on the water activities. Instead I used it as mat for Max to spread out on.

These guys are called "Seattle Knights". They did a jousting show that we didn't bother to watch. I was getting hot just thinking about how hot these guys must be feeling.

Here's Jalen and daddy on the "train" ride. It was the only activity that he was interested in.

Jumping Max

2010-08-12T22:30:00.000-07:00

Max is 6 months old!

2010-08-05T22:43:00.000-07:00

At 6 months, Max is rolling around but not sitting or crawling yet. He is sleeping through the night (yay!!). He is not very interested in solid food yet. We have his 6 months check up next week where we'll find out how he's growing.

Here's a picture of me and Jalen when he was around 6 months old. Max and Jalen definitely look like brothers when they're smiling!

Max playing on his tummy

2010-07-30T14:31:00.000-07:00

Day in the life of a working mom of 2

2010-07-24T23:05:00.000-07:00

6am - first feeding of the day for Max, put him back down to sleep, me stumble back to bed
7am - get up, get dressed for work
7:30am - Jalen wakes up. I get him to pee, wash hands, eat breakfast and dressed for school. then he gets to watch some TV
8am - Rick leave with Jalen to drop him off to school
8:30am - nanny arrives for Max. We debrief about how Max was yesterday,
then plan for dinner (she cooks for me!!)
8:45am - leave for work. I drive to the park and ride then take the bus to work down town
9:30am - arrive at the office. sometimes I grab breakfast
5:30pm - leave the office, take the bus to the park and ride
6:15pm - arrive at Jalen's daycare for pick up
6:30pm - arrive at home with Jalen. Rick usually picks up Max from Betsy's house. I feed Max.
6:45pm - the rest of us eats dinner. it's so nice to have the nanny cook for us. it saves so much time and stress
7 - 8:30pm - keep the kids entertained, sometimes run errands like going to the store
8:30pm - I feed Max and put him to sleep. Meantime, Rick tries his best to put Jalen down.
9pm - finally able to have some quiet. I might catch up on work, watch some TV, do laundry
11:30pm - bed time

This is the approximate schedule. Having Max sleep through until 6am is a recent victory. Before, he'd need a 4am feeding, then again around 7:30am. Lately, Jalen has been a huge challenge. Every morning he complains about going to school. Last Friday, I was planning to leave the house at 8am for a 9am meeting at work and have Rick wait for the nanny. Well, Jalen whined and kicked until 8:30am before Rick and I finally wrestled him into the car seat. Then Jalen screamed and kicked all the way to school. When we got to school, I carried him by the waist and brought him inside. I had to spend time with him in the office to help calm him down before they took him to his class. I completely missed my 9am meeting. On other nights, we put Jalen down around 8:30pm and he will say that he's not tired. He will come up with ways to stall, including going to the bathroom multiple times. Sometimes, he doesn't actually fall asleep until past 10pm. On those nights, my evening is really compressed. We just try to take things day by day. Some days, the feeling of getting on the bus and going to work is such a relief because I made it through the morning hustle and bustle.

Brothers

2010-07-22T22:22:00.001-07:00

Bite of Seattle

2010-07-20T22:38:00.001-07:00

Last weekend we went to the Bite of Seattle with Steven and Trish's family. Jalen and Emmy had a fun time sharing candy with each other. It's hard to imagine that when Jalen was born, Emmy was already 18 months old and now they're playing together so well.

Max jabbering

2010-07-20T22:35:00.001-07:00

4th of July

2010-07-20T22:22:00.000-07:00

This post is way, way late. But such is the life of a working mom.

Here's a just turned 5-month old Max. At 5 months, he recently learned to roll from his back to his front. But once he ends up on his front, he can't roll back.

Sometimes Jalen asks to "hold" Max. It ends up looking something like this. Here's our 4th of July photo shoot with their USA themed outfits. I only had a USA Gap hat for Max (Jalen's hand me down), so Jalen also wanted to wear his hat.

I love this picture because his eyes look so cute it reminded me of Puss in Boots from Shrek when he makes the cute face.

The 4th was a soggy day. It cleared up in the evening and we lit some fireworks at Kate and Garrett's house. Here's Jalen holding a 3-ft sparkler (just 4" shorter than Jalen). He liked the sparkler until the sparkles started getting closer to his hand. Then he didn't want it anymore. He also didn't like the noisy fireworks too much.

First week back at work

2010-06-29T22:26:00.000-07:00

The first week back at work was full of up and downs. Things at work changed around a lot-- my team almost doubled and I have a new boss. But I was surprised how good it felt to be there. I'm really thankful for what a great job I have and I felt really appreciated by the way my team welcomed me back.

At home, things were a bit challenging. Our new part time nanny started on Monday. I was quite worried about how Max would do because he'd been having a tough time with the bottle. Little did I know, he took the bottle just fine. But he was fussy and didn't nap well. The nanny was reluctant to let him cry so she ended up holding him all day. Not only he wanted to be held by her, he would only settle down if she moved and walk around. When I got home, the first thing the nanny told me was that Max is one difficult baby. I was completely distraught. I had such a hard time arranging for Max's child care so the last thing I wanted was for the nanny to quit on me. I tried to tell her and myself that it's because Max is unfamiliar with her. I spent about an hour that night on the phone with my parents asking for advice.

So for the rest of the week, I was so anxious when I got home everyday because I was worried about finding out how Max did. On Wednesday, after another fussy day without good naps, the nanny said that if this Max keeps this up she doesn't think she could continue. That made me beyond stressed and helpless.

Then on Thursday, I came home and the nanny told me Max was very good. He took 3 naps and wasn't fussy. I was so relieved I nearly broke down and thanked Buddha, Baby Jesus and Allah! On Friday the nanny went on her 1.5 week vacation so grandma and Auntie Betsy took care of Max. Max did great again and I hope he will be able to have an easy time away from me from now on.

Jalen's 3 year check up

2010-06-22T21:46:00.000-07:00

On June 8, I took Jalen for his belated 3-year check up. He was really good with the doctor. She asked him what he did for his birthday and I was surprised that he remembered that we did the Tumble Bus! Jalen was 35.4lb and 40". His weight is at 75th percentile and his height is at 95th percentile. So I guess he is pretty tall for his age!

Here's Jalen at Easton's 3 year old birthday party at the bouncy house. This was his first party for a classmate and he had a ton of fun.

Back to work and new kitchen

2010-06-20T22:36:00.000-07:00

Friday, June 18th was my first day back at work. I had been dreading that day because I knew that it'll take quite an adjustment to get into a new routine. At the same time, I was looking forward to it because I was getting lonely being at home all the time. We started out kitchen remodel on June 1st and I was praying that the remodel would finish before I get back to work. Luckily, it wasn't too much behind schedule and finished on the day that I went back to work.

This last whole week, I was worried sick about Max because he had been refusing to take a bottle! At times, he would cry for 30 minutes and not drink. As soon as you take the bottle away, he would stop crying. I couldn't believe that he stopped taking a bottle because he didn't have any problems with it before. It seems like he changed his mind just as I was about to go back. So last week, I'd try to give him a bottle twice a day and I would be so happy if he would drink from it. On Friday, Max spent half the day at Rick's mom's house and half the day at Auntie Betsy's house. He cried a little bit at one of his feedings but otherwise he did OK. I was so relieved to hear that. Next Monday, it'll be Max's first day with our part time nanny. I really, really hope it goes well.

Here's a cute picture of Jalen holding Max. It's been so sweet seeing these two start to interact. Max really reacts to Jalen's voice I think because it's at a higher pitch. Sometimes, Jalen talks to Max and makes him laugh out loud. So Jalen keeps doing it and Max just goes gah gah with giggles.

Our kitchen is almost done. We're still waiting for 2 special ordered cabinets to arrive in a few weeks. It's been so much work moving everything out and now re-organizing. I hope soon, I'll finally get to relax and enjoy cooking in my new kitchen.

Max is 4 months old!

2010-06-07T15:06:00.001-07:00

I took Max to his check-up on his 4-months birthday last Monday. He was 14lb 12oz and 24 3/4 inches. Both his weight and height are in the 50th percentile. So Max is just an average, healthy boy. I don't know whether it's because I'm an experienced mommy now, or if Max is just more laid back but I find Max is an easier baby than Jalen was at the same age. I've already stopped swaddling Max whereas Jalen was swaddled until about 10 months! I can just put Max down in his crib and he will fall alseep on his own. We always held Jalen until he fell asleep then we'd very, very carefully put him down. If he happened to wake up, we'd immediately pick him up again and rocked him to sleep.

One thing that I'm still working on with Max is getting him to sleep longer at night. Nowadays, Max eats about 6 - 8 times a day, about every 3 - 4 hours. His last feeding of the day is around 8:30pm and he goes to asleep at 9pm. He can sleep until 3am and somethings even 5am! After his 3am feeding, he often wakes up around 5am so I bring him in bed with us. The challenging part nowadays is that daylight starts around 5am. Sometimes Max wakes up Jalen and Jalen hops into bed with us. But since it's so bright, Jalen can't fall alseep. All I can do is hope that Jalen sleeps until a reasonable hour, like 7:30am. I'm going back to work in less than 2 weeks so I'm pretty nervous about how the lack of sleep will affect me at work!

Here's Max in his exercisaucer. He tries to reaches for the buttons but a lot of the time he just ends up chewing on the cloth covering on the harness.

Max smiles all the time now. He loves looking a faces, even strangers. He is the happiest when I take him out for a walk or shopping.

Here's Andy and Aimi's son Rylan, who is about 2 weeks older than Max. Rylan is a big boy, he's already 17lbs!

Here's Auntie Betsy making Max laughing out loud! Max has a laugh that almost sounds like a cough sometimes. I love tickling him to make him laugh!

Max is 16 weeks old!

2010-05-27T22:11:00.000-07:00

This is the newest gadget for me...er... I mean for Max. It's the Nap Nanny. I'm hoping that Max will take lots of long naps in it!

Here's Jalen insisting on showing Max how to do tummy time...

I've been trying to consciously give Max more tummy time and he's been doing great!

Happy 3rd birthday Jalen!

2010-05-20T16:02:00.000-07:00

After hosting Jalen's 2nd birthday last year at home, I swore that his next birthday party wouldn't be at home. Yet this year, I changed my mind and thought it'd be better to have the party at home instead of at a jungle gym or something. Now, I'm saying again that next year's birthday party won't be at home! We spent Saturday afternoon shopping for groceries, Saturday evening tidying and cleaning, Sunday morning prepping, then Sunday and Monday cleaning up. I think I just recovered from the party on Tuesday. But at least the kids had lots of fun!

I was expecting about 10 - 12 kids aged 2 - 4 at the party so I knew we needed an outlet for all that energy. So this year, we had Dizzy's tumble bus come to our house. It was a good thing that we got the tumble bus too because it was raining at the start of the party.

The kids had a ball, literally. It took them no time to warm up and start having fun. The bus was only here for about 1 hour but it was plenty of time to get them worked up, tired out, then ready for some food and cake.

Jalen went down the slide head first into the balls. He loved it!

This year, for the sake of ease, we got giant cup cakes from Costco. Man, it's a lot of butter and sugar even for an adult!

Happy Mother's Day!

2010-05-10T15:59:00.001-07:00

This past Sunday was my first Mother's day as a mother of two. Jalen made a card for me at school that says "I love my mommy so much because she play toys and play Legos". I think the best gift would have been a real day off! But since little Max is still nursing every 3 hours, that day off will just have to wait. We went to brunch with our family then went to the park in the afternoon. The weather was beautiful in Seattle so overall it was a great day.

I was so excited to see how great Jalen is doing on his balance bike. I've been taking him to the park every week and each time he's getting more confident with balancing on his bike. It's such a joy to see how quickly kids learns new things and how fearless they are.

Max is 14 weeks old!

2010-05-10T15:58:00.000-07:00

At 14 weeks, Max likes to smile when he has a full tummy. He likes to watch the mobile on his swing but he won't sleep very long in it. He started sucking on his hands and fingers but he still finds his pacifier more comforting. Max loves car rides and stroller rides and in general he loves being out of the house. When I take him out to run errands, he can take long 2 hour naps. At home he only takes 30 minute to 1 hour naps. I've started putting Max down for the night around 9pm in his crib. He can usually fall asleep on his own. This is a great victory for me since I think we held Jalen until he fell asleep when he was this age. It's hard to believe that he's already 3.5 months. I must remind myself everyday to savor this time when he's still little and wants me to hold him as much as possible.

Max is 3 months old!

2010-05-05T13:29:00.000-07:00

Max celebrated his 3-months birthday in Vancouver, Canada. This was Max's first trip to Canada. Rick couldn't leave town because of work so he stayed back with Jalen and I took Max by myself. I didn't know what to say to Jalen when I was leaving. He kept on asking "where are you going?" And the only thing I could muster was "I'll be back!" Having just one child to take care of was a piece of cake! I talked to Jalen on the phone when I was in Vancouver and he wasn't too upset about me being away. Phew!

These are the mandatory bath time pictures. I took Jalen to Vancouver by myself when he was around 2 months old and we also took bath photos. My parents kept on comparing Max to Jalen. Finally, I had to tell them, please don't compare them in front of Jalen! You're going to give my kids a complex!

Of course I didn't make it any less easy to compare Max to Jalen. Here Max is wearing Jalen's old Roots Canada shirt for his first trip to Canada. Jalen was in this shirt when he was 1.5 months and here Max is 3 months old. Obviously, Max is a lot smaller than Jalen.

Come on Joming, don't you want one of these cuties too?

Hey there Tina, why are you sooo far away? Come closer and give my cheeks a kiss!

Here's Ivy showing Max lots and lots of huggy love.

Birthday party weekend

2010-04-27T22:01:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went on the kiddie birthday circuit with Tyler's 3rd birthday party on Saturday then Trenton's 3rd birthday party on Sunday. Jalen had a lot of fun at the jungle gym for Trenton's party. We were pleasantly surprised that he could swing really well!

Here's Rylan and Max and their daddies. Rylan is about 1 month older than Max.

Jalen giving birthday boy Trenton a big hug!

Jalen was fearless when swinging on the rings.

Lately, our whole family of 4 have been ending up in bed by the morning. Usually, I bring Max into bed with me after the 6am feeding. Then Jalen hops into bed with us when he wakes up around 7am. Sometimes, Jalen comes into our room and gets into bed in the middle of the night without us knowing! Most of the time, we're too tired to tell him to go back to his room. Good thing we have a king size bed!

Max is 10 weeks old!

2010-04-12T23:46:00.001-07:00

Wow, our little Max in double digit weeks! He's hit a couple of new milestones in the last week or so. First, he is starting to smile more while he's awake. He's always smiled while he's asleep but now he will smile when he's awake, alert and in a good mood. He's also started sleeping longer at night. Thank goodness! Max's last feeding of the evening is at 9pm then he'll usually drift off to sleep around 10pm or 11pm. In the last few days, he's been sleeping until 2am or even 5am! Then he'll sleep until about 6am. After the 6am feeding, he tends to wake up again around 7am but I'll just bring him in bed with me and he'll sleep with me for a bit longer. There's nothing better than sleeping with your baby. I treasure all this cuddling with him because pretty soon, they'll get big and won't let you hold them anymore!

Max's neck is getting stronger so I had him in the Bumbo seat today. So Jalen immediately asked if he could sit next to him in his own chair.

Max was content in his Bumbo for about 30 minutes today while I sorted out Jalen's old clothes by size. He was mesmerized by the TV.

This is a mini smile I managed to capture on camera.

Easter weekend and Grandparents' visit

2010-04-04T23:29:00.000-07:00

My parents came to visit from Vancouver this Easter weekend. We didn't do any themed photo shoots but my dad still captured these great shots of Max and Jalen.

Max is 2 months old!

2010-04-02T14:24:00.000-07:00

It's no joke, Max turned 2 months old on April 1. Today I took him to the pediatrician for his 2-months check up. He is now 11lbs 11oz and 22.5 inches long. His weight is in the 50% percentile and height is 25 - 50%. We also checked on his jaundice and it's improved a lot and almost in the normal range. The doctor doesn't think we need to worry about it anymore.

In the last few days, Max has started to establish a feeding/sleeping pattern. He feeds every 3 hours at 9am, 12pm, 3pm, 6pm and 9pm. After 9pm, he falls asleep around 10pm and sleeps until anywhere from 12:30am - 2am. Then he'll wake up again between 3:30am - 5am. But for this feeding, he'll only eat for about 3 minutes before falling asleep again. Which would be fine except he wakes up again at 6am. Then 8am. So in the last couple of days, I've been trying to get him to go back to sleep when he wakes up at 4am and not feeding him until 6am. I'm hoping that he'll eventually learn to sleep from 12am - 6am. Or at least I can wish, right?

Max's welcome party

2010-03-22T23:06:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, we had a small party for the Locke side of the family to introduce Max to everyone. Max has been used to wearing Jalen's hand me downs but for this occasion, I bought Max a brand new outfit.

Max is 7 weeks old!

2010-03-22T22:56:00.000-07:00

Max had a few visitors this week.

Wow, babies are so easy. What do you think, Kate and Garrett?

Joon came over to watch the Huskies play on Saturday and visit with Jalen and Max.

Max didn't scream and cry during his bath this time. He liked it! You can kind of see that his thighs and arms are filling out.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2010-03-18T20:25:00.000-07:00

Wednesday was Max's first St. Patty's day. We marked the occasion by going to Old Navy and getting the boys matching shirts for a photoshoot. Max wasn't in the best mood for it but we got some OK pictures.

Max making his "no pictures please" face.

I'm excited that Max's cheeks are getting pudgy.

Max's "suspicious" face.

Max and Jalen are already buddies.

I'll take care of you little brother!

Max's "I'm happy to be asleep" face.

Later that day, Jalen and I baked cookies at home. After we were done, Jalen went to his play kitchen and said "I bake cookies for you mommy!"

Max is 6 weeks old!

2010-03-15T18:54:00.001-07:00

This week, Max is still struggling with this lingering cold that he caught from big brother Jalen. His nose is quite stuffed up so he has trouble breathing sometimes. But as you can see from the photos, he's getting chubbier and doesn't look much like a newborn anymore. He's still quite small compared to Jalen at this age. I'm thankful that I get to enjoy him at this size.

Today we took Max to his Nexus card interview because he needs his own Nexus card for us to use the Nexus lane when we go to Canada. Max had to get his picture taken for his card so the customs officer took a picture of Max sleeping in his car seat. It was quite silly.

Not in the mood for a photoshoot.

Peeking over mommy's shoulder.

Max is 5 weeks old!

2010-03-09T19:30:00.000-08:00

Last Tuesday we took Max to his one-month check up and he was perfectly healthy. Just the next day, Max developed this red rash on his face, legs and arms. The rash looked like bright red welts. Also, his left eye looked red and watery. On Wednesday night, he was fussy and didn't eat much. So we took Max back to the doctor's office on Thursday. The doctor didn't know what the rash was but she guessed it was Max's reaction to a cold virus. Sure enough, big brother Jalen had a runny nose that he probably caught from daycare. The next day, Max's rash went down a lot and he started showing signs of a cold: congestion and coughing. I guess the doctor was right. So the next couple of nights were rough where Max wouldn't stay asleep for long. I ended up waking every hour. He's still a little under the weather now but getting better. Boy, he had us worried there for a while!

Max's jaundice is getting much better. As a result, he is much more alert during the day and keeps his eyes open. He looks different from older brother Jalen when his eyes are wide open.

Here's Max having tummy time.

It wasn't long before he became upset and plopped face down on the blanket.

Max's grandpa Harry was discharged from the hospital yesterday. Max was happy that he's finally able to visit him at home to cheer him up.

Max is 1 month old!

2010-03-02T15:18:00.000-08:00

March 1 was Max's 4-week birthday and 1 month birthday. Today we took him to the pediatrician for his 1 month wellness check up. Max is now 8lb 11oz and 21.25 inches. He is on the small side, in the 25 - 50 percentile. Max still has some jaundice, he's yellow in the face and in his chest. However, the doctor is not concerned about it at this point so we didn't have to draw his blood again.

We tried a photo shoot during the day but Max wasn't in the mood for it.

I fed him a little to calm him down but that just put him to sleep.

Max tends to stay awake after his 9pm feeding. So we decided to try to take some photos again.

Max is 3 weeks old!

2010-02-22T19:16:00.001-08:00

Our little Max is 3 weeks old today. My mom, who has been staying with us since Max's birth, went back to Canada today. That means our little family of 4 is left to fend for ourselves. No more gourmet yummy cooking every night by my mom! We still have to go to the pediatrician tomorrow to check Max's jaundice, again. The doctor wants to continue to monitor his jaundice level even though we know that it's likely caused by the breast milk. I just want them to stop pricking his little heels!

Play guess the baby

2010-02-18T17:27:00.001-08:00

When Max was born, we thought that he looked just like Jalen when he was a baby. But as time went on, we've started to notice how Max looks different from Jalen. Still, let's see if you can tell the difference. See comment for the answer.

Baby A

Baby B

Jalen reads Good Night Moon to baby brother Max

2010-02-16T10:29:00.001-08:00

Max is 2 weeks old!

2010-02-15T20:32:00.000-08:00

Max started on photo-therapy on Feb. 5. Since then, a nurse visits our house everyday to get his weight, temperature and blood sample to check his billirubin level. It's so sad watching them poke his little heels everyday. His jaundice didn't improve much after being on phototherapy for a week. So based on the doctor's recommendation, we did a trial of giving Max only formula for 2 days. This meant that I had to pump every 3 hours for those two days. What a chore! So at night, Rick would give Max the bottle while I pumped. Fortunately, the trial paid off and his jaundice improved dramatically after 2 days. So today, on his 2-week birthday, the doctor said Max can be off the lights. They will come visit again tomorrow to take what I hope to be the final blood sample to show that his jaundice didn't get worse after being off the lights.

Some temporary break from the lights.

Daddy doing bottle duty.

Jalen plants a big kiss on baby Max.

We took Jalen and Max to Bellevue Square on Sunday. Max slept the whole time.

Max is 2 weeks old and out of the lights! He's now 7lbs 5oz, up from 6lbs 6ozs since he started light therapy.

Max is 1 week old!

2010-02-08T16:40:00.000-08:00

Baby Max is one week old today! When I think back to the first week we had Jalen, it was all a blur. We had to feed him every 2 hours and each feeding took about an hour. I felt like a zombie from sleep deprivation. With Max, things are a little easier because we've been through this once before. However, around last Thursday Max started to develop jaundice. It made him very lethargic and he refused to nurse. I would try for 10 minutes to get him to nurse then finally giving up and feed him using a bottle. So I had to spend all day and all night pumping. Pumping is my least favourite thing to do. It's back breakingly uncomfortable and it means I'm not bonding with my baby. Max started phototherapy for his jaundice on Friday night, which means he's been confined to his bed except for feeding and diaper changes. There's a nurse that comes to our house everyday to check on him and draw blood for daily lab test for his billirubin level. His jaundice has been improving since Friday but he will probably stay on the light for another couple of days. The nurses are also certified lactation consultants so they helped to get Max nursing again. Which means, yay, no more pumping!

Max emerges from his phototherapy pod!

My three boys.

Max is starting to gain more baby fat!

Introducing Max, aka "Speedy"!

2010-02-04T17:28:00.001-08:00

Baby Locke #2 had a due date of Feb. 12, 2010. I had planned to work until Feb. 5, 2010 to give myself a week of head room. However, as of Jan. 27, I was already 4cm dilated. We were preparing for baby to arrive any day. In fact, I was quite anxious for baby to come because I was getting increasingly uncomfortable. On Sunday, Jan. 31, I spent 1 hour on the elliptical machine at the gym, hoping to get things kick started! However, to my disappointment, there was no sign of baby and I begrudgingly went to work on Monday.

On Monday Feb. 1 evening, I went to pick up Jalen at Ricky's parents house in Seattle and we went to a Sichuan restaurant for dinner. Around 7:30pm I started feeling slightly painful contractions. I had been getting Braxton Hicks contractions for a week, so I wasn't sure if this was the real thing or not. After dinner, I gave Ricky a call at 7:54pm to tell him to come into Seattle just in case. I was timing my contractions and they were coming around 2 - 4 minutes apart. However, they were still mild and I didn't have trouble getting through them.

Ricky got to his parents house around 8:30pm and suggested that we leave for the hospital right away. I didn't want to be overreacting so I paged the oncall doctor. She suggested we come in after I told her the contractions were 2 to 4 minutes apart. The worst thing that can happen is that they'd send me home. So I said good night to Jalen, and Ricky and I left for the hospital. I figured that we still had plenty of time because these contractions were nothing compared to what I remembered from the last time.

As soon as we got into the car, around 8:45pm, my contractions all of sudden became really intense. It took a lot of cursing and screaming just to get through them. I was thinking, oh my God, how did I get through these last time? By the time we got to the hospital, I was hanging on for dear life. Then, something felt strange and I thought the baby was coming. I felt the urge to push. I yelled to Rick, "something is happening!!" He drove the car to the ER entrance where he quickly summoned help. That strange feeling I had was my water breaking. The ER staff brought over a wheelchair. I took one look at it and thought "you've got to be kidding me". Rick said, no we need a stretcher. I don't know how they got me onto the stretcher but I just remember being wheeled into the hospital and up the elevators. I was grabbing onto the sides of the stretcher as I screamed through my contractions. I was doing my best to avoid pushing.

The triage nurse examined me and said, "oh, there's the baby". They were going to try to get me to the delivery room but thought better of it. Because in the next minute, the baby slipped out. I was not even pushing! I was in such shock. They handed the baby to me and Rick said "it's a boy!" I was sobbing from shock and relief. I can't believe what a close call that was. I was officially checked into the hospital at 9:05pm and the baby was born at 9:06pm. If we were just a few minutes later, I could have had the baby in the car!

Rick and I didn't know the sex of the baby ahead of time. We were not so secretly hoping for a girl and had finally settled on a girl name just days ago. But we still had no boy name! After getting to know our new baby son for a little while, we decided to call him "Max". Just Max, not short for anything. We like that it's different sounding than Jalen so he will be his own little man.

Welcome baby Max, mommy and daddy love you so much already!

Big milestone for Jalen

2010-01-30T09:21:00.000-08:00

On Jan. 8, 2010, we sent Jalen to daycare in underwear, not diapers! His school had suggested that we start and we were thinking the same thing since baby #2 is coming and we want to get Jalen off diapers. We knew the day had to come some time soon and we just had to suck it up and prepare ourselves to take the big step. He kept his pants dry on day 1 but then on day 2 had 3 accidents, i.e. wet/poopy pants. Now we've finished our 3rd full week of underwear training and he's doing really great. We take him to the bathroom to pee about every hour and we make him go #2 once or twice a day. He gets 2 treats for going #2 on the toilet. Every night, he gets to pick out which underwear to wear: cars? Thomas the tank engine? Elmo? We still put him in diapers during nap time and at night but lately he's been keeping his diaper dry through the night (10 - 12 hours).

The next big step for Jalen would be telling us that he needs to pee without us prompting him. He's already started doing that when he needs to be poop. Once he's able to go potty by himself then he'll gradate to preschool. That probably won't happen until he's around 3 years old but we're still so pleasantly surprised and proud of how great he's doing with potty training.

Week 35

2010-01-09T21:37:00.001-08:00

Baby #2 is due in just 5 weeks! So far, the third trimester has been a rough one. I'm suffering from terrible acid reflux and sometimes vomit twice a day. Although I have gained only 20 - 25lbs so far, it still feels like I'm carrying a watermelon with everywhere I go. On the other hand, I'm not retaining water the way I was with Jalen, which means I can still fit into all my shoes. :)

Here's a picture of me when I was 8 months pregnant with Jalen back in April, 2007.

Some pictures from Christmas

2010-01-09T21:23:00.000-08:00

Getting ready for baby #2

2010-01-08T19:31:00.000-08:00

It's T minus 5 weeks until baby #2 is due to join us. Last night, I had Rick set up the bassinet in our bedroom. This morning, Jalen walked into our room and saw it for the first time. This was how the conversation went:

Jalen: what's this?
Me: it's the bed for the baby.
Jalen: I want to go in it?
Me: no, you're too big. It's for the baby.
Jalen: you take it away!
Me: If I take it away, where is the baby going to sleep?
Jalen: the baby sleep on the floor!

Oh boy, I think this was the first preview of how Jalen is going to feel about the new baby. I can already envision the future:

Me to Rick: where is the baby?
Rick: look, it's on the floor!
Jalen: (guilty look on face)

Thanksgiving

2009-12-06T16:45:00.001-08:00

This year, we had an abundance of turkeys. Rick made 2 deep fried turkeys and Uncle Park got a roasted turkey from a Chinese BBQ restaurant. Yum!

Jalen and cousin Gracie read a Ni Hao Kai Lan book.

Jalen and Gracie get a pony ride on Grant.

Jalen and Nursery Rhymes

2009-12-06T16:38:00.000-08:00

One of the things I love about Jalen going to daycare is that he constantly surprises us with the things that he learns. For example, he knows a lot of nursery rhymes and he has loved singing them long before he knew how to pronounce the words.

Jalen sings twinkle twinkle little star.

Jalen does itsy bitsy spider.

Better Late Than Never

2009-12-05T21:41:00.001-08:00

Here are some long overdue pictures from Halloween.

Jalen was dressed up as a cowboy for his daycare class on Halloween. Here's his favourite T2 teach Ms. Ling. She speaks Mandarin with Jalen.

We took Jalen to Bellevue Square for trick or treating again this year. Since Halloween was on a Saturday, the mall was insanely busy. Jalen was a bit overwhelmed by the crowds and lost interest in the activities quickly.

Baby No. 2 Update

2009-11-15T00:40:00.000-08:00

Here are the current stats on baby No. 2, which is essentially an update on me.

Number of weeks pregnant - 27 weeks, a little less than 3 months to go!
Number of pounds gained - 15lb
Baby gender - unknown

I'm entering the third and final trimester and I'm feeling very pregnant now. Even though I only gained 15lbs so far, I feel quite heavy and huge. I am hoping that I can avoid the swollen ankles this time and keep my weight gain in the happy 25lb - 30lb range (I gained 47lbs with Jalen). It's hard to believe that baby will be here that soon. We really have done nothing to prepare yet. I'm hoping for lots of help from my parents over the Christmas holidays! :)

Bed time ritual

2009-11-05T20:59:00.000-08:00

Jalen has practically memorized this book because we read it EVERY night before bed.

Baby #2 Enters the Blogsphere

2009-09-05T00:06:00.000-07:00

Being the lucky first born means that Jalen has gotten all of the attention from mommy and daddy, and the grand parents. Now he must learn how to share with a soon to be arriving sibling, starting now with his blog. Here's the story of Baby #2 so far.

June 6, 2009

How we found out -- I was getting ready to go to my girls trip to Phoenix with Tina. I still hadn’t gotten my period even though I took a pregnancy test the week before and it was negative. I was actually annoyed all week because I thought I’d be on my period while we’re in Phoenix! Anyways, I figured I should take another test since it’s been a week since the last. I took it at about 4am since I woke up and I had to go to the bathroom. When it beeped and read “pregnant”, I said “oh my God”. When I told Rick, he said “I knew it!” We had suspected I might have been pregnant because I was feeling more hungry and my face was breaking out. Thinking back, we guessed that it must have been the night after Jalen’s 2 year old birthday party. My parents were in town and we just had to take advantage of the free babysitting by going out and hitting the bars. Blame it on the alcohol! Wow, I wasn’t expecting the second pregnancy to happen like this but it is a true blessing.

July 1, 2009

Week 10 – So far, I think that I’ve felt less sick than I did with Jalen. I definitely have more energy since I still can keep up with my work outs. Although I’ve been taking it easy and just doing the elliptical. Last Saturday I walked for 3 miles which took me about 1 hour. It was quite relaxing and nice. I am tired of thinking about food all day long. If I don’t eat, then I get very hungry and my stomach feels queasy. So my daily intake is something like: 7am first breakfast, 9:30am second breakfast, 12pm lunch, 3pm, second lunch, 6:30pm dinner, 10pm, second dinner. In theory, you’re supposed to each 6 small meals to prevent nausea except I’m eating almost 6 full meals! The doctor said that I only need 300 extra calories while I’m pregnant. I’m definitely eating more than that. So I’m glad that at least I’m able to continue to work out. My goal is to gain only 30lbs this time around. With Jalen, I gained about 46lb.

July 14, 2009

Week 12? - I had my OB appointment today. What a stressful event that was! It started out all normal until the doctor went to listen to the baby’s heart rate. She couldn’t hear anything, so she said, let’s do an ultrasound. I was like oookay. I had to wait in the lobby for the nurse. All sorts of thoughts were going through my head. Finally, they called my name and they couldn’t see the baby well because I didn’t have a full bladder. After some maneuvering, we finally saw the baby. It was waving its arm! Wow, that was more animated than the first time when I saw Jalen when he was just a little lima bean with a little flicker of a heart beat. This baby, you can see arms and legs and the heart beat as well. The nurse measured the baby and announced that it’s only measuring at 9.5 weeks, not 11 some as we had thought based on my last period. This makes my new due date February 12 instead of January 28. That totally threw me for a loop and now I have no idea when the baby was conceived. But the relief was seeing my baby moving and active. It’s so amazing and brought a smile to my face.

Another note is that I gained 5lbs since my first appointment a month ago. I can’t even comfortably button up my jeans anymore. Yikes! It’s not such much a baby bump as it is a bloated belly. Sigh. My doctor recommended taking Tums and Pepcid A/C to keep my tummy calm. Hopefully, that means I won’t have to eat as much to combat the upset stomach.

September 2, 2009

Week 17 – Yesterday was the first day when I felt some fluttering that could be the baby moving. I wasn’t sure whether it was the baby at first because I had been feeling a lot of movement in my tummy due to, ahem, gas. But this time around it was different. The movements weren’t accompanied with, er, bloating. It feels like a little fish is swimming in my tummy. Today I felt those movements again and I’m more certain that it is the baby! It’s so great feeling the baby move. In the last few weeks, I’ve been tired and my stomach has been upset. As I entered the second trimester those symptoms are subsiding. Oh, another lovely side effect of this pregnancy is that I’ve been breaking out a lot, especially on my chin. I’m just not one of those women that get the beautiful pregnancy glow. I get pimples instead. So with all of these things I have to deal with as a part of the pregnancy, feeling the baby move was the first big reward.

I’m completely dependent on the Bella Band now as I can’t even zip up my jeans now. I love that leggings are in right now so that I can enjoy the elastic waist band! My weight gain has slowed down since my stomach has calmed down so I’ve had to eat less. I’m still at about 5lbs above my pre-pregnancy weight which is good because I’m still on track with my goal of less than 30lbs!

September 4

The baby is definitely full on kicking! It no longer feels like litter flutters. Today I was able to put my hand on my belly and feel the kick from the outside. The baby is especially active when I'm pooped and pause for a rest. It feels great to get these little hellos from the baby. Hello to you too!

Summer Picnic

2009-08-16T22:14:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, we went to the annual Amazon summer picnic in North Bend, WA. Each year, Jalen has been able to enjoy the activities more and more.

Here's Jalen and his daddy on the tractor/train ride. He liked it so much he went on it twice.

This was a big high slide! Jalen didn't want to climb up by himself so Rick climbed up with him.

Jalen insisted that he comes down behind Rick. The slide must have been pretty slippery because he lost control right away and started head down instead of feet down.

Looks like it was a lot of fun though!

A Bouncy Fun Time

2009-08-14T22:02:00.001-07:00

Last Sunday was Matthew's 2 year old birthday party. Jalen got a taste of the trampoline again and he had a lot of fun trying to jump on it. Unfortunately, he inherited his mommy's coordination skills and still can't take off on both feet. But he still enjoyed skipping and hopping and falling down.

Seafair Weekend

2009-08-05T22:20:00.001-07:00

Last weekend was the traditional Seafair weekend with the Blue Angels air show and the hydroplane races. Our friend Tom offered his lake front home for us to watch the show. Jalen was at first excited about the planes. However, at one point during the show, one plane flew really close to us and it was really loud. After that he said "no more airplanes" and we went inside.

Matching outfits for Daddy and Jalen!

Weekend trip to Vancouver

2009-07-31T23:27:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we were in Vancouver for my friend Catherine's wedding. My parents spent all of Saturday with Jalen, taking him to the park, then to the mall to keep cool. Jalen was a good boy and had a long nap in the afternoon. He reported back to us that he had french fries, cake and ice cream with grandma and grandpa! We're happy to let my parents indulge him as long as it's just once in a while!

Audrey's Birthday Party

2009-07-19T22:02:00.000-07:00

It was another beautiful, warm and sunny day in Seattle for Audrey's second birthday party.

Jalen and Matthew looking so cool in their daddies' shades. Matthew is 2 months younger than Jalen but he's already 35lbs. He's tall just like his mommy.

Jalen got his first taste of cotton candy today. He seemed to like it but then he proceeded to use the cotton candy to dust the table. I guess the cotton candy looked a little too much like his grandma's Swifter Duster!

Jalen had so much fun playing with the water slide and water toys. He didn't want to get dried off even though it was getting a little chilly.

Here's Jalen taking a big bite into the yummy turkey leg Audrey's mommy made.

Jalen found the beat on a electric keyboard and got all the kids dancing at the party.

Fun in the Pool

2009-07-13T23:20:00.001-07:00

Saturday was a sunny and hot day in Seattle. We took this opportunity to go to a community aquatic center. Jalen loved being in the adult lap pool where he was able to float around. He's very buoyant in the water so we just have to barely support him. He also liked sitting on the ledge of the pool and pushing off into the water. He doesn't quite get jumping yet, so no cannon balls for Jalen this time.

4th of July

2009-07-13T23:04:00.000-07:00

This year, we had a full and busy 4th of July. We started by going to the celebration in our neighbourhood Newport Hills park where Jalen played on the slides, ate hot dogs and played on the Tumble Bus. After an afternoon nap, we went to Tyler's house for a BBQ. We lit off some small fireworks and sparklers. Then at 10pm, we watched the fireworks display in Renton. Jalen loved staying up late and all of the fireworks. Tyler and Preston both were tired and called it an early night. Jalen is such a party animal!

Big News!

2009-07-03T21:56:00.001-07:00

This is a picture of Jalen sitting on the toilet in May. We'd try to put him on the toilet or the potty once in a while and he always just sat there and no pee. Last Wednesday, when I picked him up at Grandma's house, she told me he peed in the toilet! I couldn't believe it. We tried it again at home and sure enough, he peed! After he pees, he would flush the toilet and put the potty seat away then we would wash his hands. It's only been day 3 of preliminary potty training but Rick and I are so excited we went and bought Pull-ups. We're just dreaming of days of diaper-free Jalen!

Splasin' Around

2009-06-28T22:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was another beautiful sunny day in Seattle. Tyler's daddy Viet invited us over to their house to play in their backyard pool. Tyler was taking a nap while Jalen had so much fun splashing around. When Tyler finally got up, they played in the water some more by dipping their cars in the pool.

Some Older Videos

2009-06-23T21:22:00.000-07:00

Here is Rick teaching Jalen the art of eating string cheese the right way. Great... Now I'm sure to find dried up crusty pieces of cheese laying around the house.

Here's Jalen waking up one morning and decided to break dance in his crib. I think this is around the time when we were watching America's Best Dance Crew and Jalen was inspired by their dancing.

Visit to Vancouver

2009-06-21T23:15:00.000-07:00

A couple of weekends ago, Jalen and I went to Vancouver to visit my parents. Rick didn't make the drive because I was going for my friend's bridal shower so he didn't want to come. I left Seattle on Friday evening around 7pm. On the drive up to Vancouver Jalen was awake almost the whole time. He didn't doze off until it finally got dark around 10pm. I was worried that he was going to be cranky but he was quite good with his pacifier and his book. I left Vancouver around 3pm on Sunday after Jalen's nap and he was a bit restless for this part of the drive. Luckily, I was prepared. I got a portable DVD player with his favourite movie "Cars" preloaded and ready. As soon as I turned it on for him, he was all quiet.

Here we are at Van Dusen Garden. It was a beautiful sunny day!

At Oakridge Centre, Jalen met his favourite: Lightening McQueen!

Preston's Birthday Party

2009-05-26T23:02:00.001-07:00

The May birthday parade arrived at Preston's house the weekend after Jalen's birthday party. Preston was born just 2 days after Jalen, on Jalen's due date. It was a gorgeous May Saturday so the kids were able to enjoy all the toys outside in the yard.

Here's Jalen helping Preston open his birthday gifts.

Here's Jalen looking very serious in the kitchen.

Look out, there are two little boys in the kitchen!

Jalen's 2nd Birthday Party

2009-05-26T22:15:00.000-07:00

We can't believe our baby boy is 2 years old! On Saturday, May 9th, we had a party for Jalen's second birthday. My parents came to visit for this occasion. At first, I was pretty stressed out about what to do to keep a bunch of toddlers entertained. Then I had the idea of moving a slide from Rick's mom's house to our basement. That worked out great.

Here's Tyler and Preston playing with Jalen's train set. This train table set was Jalen's birthday gift. Rick found it on craigslist.

Here's the hand me down slide that we got from Rick's sister. We moved the poker table aside for this.

Jalen was super excited to have so many toys and friends around.

Here's us and Jalen with his Thomas the Train birthday cake. He cried when we sang happy birthday to him. Not sure why.

Slumber Party

2009-04-25T22:02:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Jalen slept over at Rick's parents house while we were getting ready to go to Vegas for the weekend. Grace was also there while her parents went out. Those two had fun playing in their pajamas.

Getting ready for bed

2009-04-23T21:55:00.001-07:00

As a part of Jalen's bed time routine, we have him sit on the potty and brush his teeth. Sometimes we let him do it naked. He still hasn't peed in the potty yet but he enjoys sitting on it and saying "sheeee...sheeee...sheee"

Fun in the Sun

2009-04-08T22:30:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we were so thrilled to have some nice weather we had to go outside like everyone else in Seattle. We went to a park near our house and Jalen practiced his basketball skills. It was so lovely and warm.

Having Fun

2009-04-03T22:17:00.000-07:00

Here's Jalen playing with a magna-doodle. Jalen also likes crayons and pencil crayons. It's one of the only ways to really occupy him when he gets bored at a restaurant.

Joon came over the other day and Jalen had so much fun playing with uncle Joon. Joon was a very good playmate and patient with Jalen.

Jalen's New Ride

2009-03-19T22:28:00.000-07:00

We stopped by the Baby Style store in Bellevue Square last weekend where they were having a store closing sale. Jalen saw all the cool car ride on toys they had and just started riding around in them like they were his! He had so much fun we just had to buy one for him.