Bumbo Seat

Papa Matt and mama Lyanne have been entertaining the idea of getting baby Kara her own infant seat. The debate was between a Bumbo seat or BeBePod. (They're designed to help infant learn how to sit on their own.) Papa and mama Wong decided to buy both, let baby Kara test drive each seat for a week and determine which fits her better or which she likes more. Bumbo seat was only offered at Target store, so we got that first while the BeBePod was being delivered Site-to-Store at Walmart. Today was her first day to test it out. The pictures make a good cartoon/comic story. Check out the caption for mama Lyanne's interpretation of baby Kara's thoughts.

Hmm...this is boring.

Ooh...doggy!

Where'd you go, doggy?

Oh, well. No more doddy.

Hmm...what's this here?

Oh, mommy is holding that flashy thingamajig again.

Ooh, doggy over there!

Dinner with Auntie Jenny Wang Before She Leaves CA

Today, the Wong family met up with Auntie Jenny Wang and a few other friends at Pho 999 for dinner before she heads out to Africa for Peace Corps volunteer program. During the 20-30 minute ride to Pho 999, baby Kara fell asleep in the car. Papa Matt manage to get baby Kara out of the car and onto the Snap-N-Go without waking her up. However, a few minutes in the restaurant, baby Kara woke up. Because of being awaken for such a short nap, baby Kara was definitely still groggy. And when baby Kara is groggy or sleepy, she was not active at all.

Baby Kara got to meet Uncle Phong and Uncle Ruben for the first time. Auntie Jane, Uncle Ton, Uncle Mike and Auntie Jenny all wanted to play with baby Kara, but they couldn't get much reaction out of her.

At one point, uncle Ton let baby Kara use cousin Ellie's BeBePod and had her sitting on the table. Cousin Ellie also wanted to play with baby Kara. She would pat baby Kara's head, touch her hair and even play with baby Kara's ears, and still got no reactions out of baby Kara. Baby Kara didn't even move or flinch!
 

Baby Kara managed to stay awake throughout the entire dinner but with no interactions. Towards the end, when everyone was ready to leave, baby Kara's crankiness came out full blast! Mama Lyanne and Papa Matt had to stay in the parking lot for a good 30 minute to an hour to get baby Kara to calm down. At the time, mama Lyanne couldn't figure out what baby Kara was crying for. She thought maybe baby Kara was crying for milk but baby Kara didn't seem to want milk and continued to cry and cry. Finally, papa Matt told mama Lyanne to just strap baby Kara in the carseat and drive home. After a few minutes of disagreeing, mama Lyanne finally agreed to let baby Kara cry it out in the car. But as soon as the car started and a few minutes into the drive, baby Kara stopped crying and fell asleep shortly after. Deja vu? Yep. This behavior of baby Kara being cranky and crying for sleep was still fairly new for mama Lyanne and papa Matt that it hasn't really sinked into their heads to have it as a check list for baby Kara's crying. But now that it has happened often enough that mama Lyanne will put that into baby Kara's personality list.

More of Kara's Silliness

This week, baby Kara started to play with her toes. She turns her body to one side and brings her legs up. This position also makes baby Kara want to roll over. In the video, baby Kara would try and try to roll over on her belly, but she couldn't because she hasn't figured out how to move her arm out of the way. Her arm is like a bumper stopper. Let's see how long it will take baby Kara to roll over...

Back to baby Kara's silliness. Mama Lyanne was able to capture a picture evidence of baby Kara trying to kick off her pants. Baby Kara started her kicking and was about to kick off her pants. But as soon as baby Kara saw mama Lyanne with the camera, she stopped her kicking and started to swing her arms wanting to play with mama Lyanne. The pictures looked as though baby Kara was doing karate moves, "hay-ya!"

 

Lastly is baby Kara's sleeping habbit. Yep, it's confirmed. It's not a coincident. When she gets tired, baby Kara likes to have her hands on or near her face to scratch, rub or cover it in some ways.  This time, she was covering her nose, "Who farted?"

Three Months Old

Two days ago, baby Kara just turned 3 months old! Mama Lyanne thinks baby Kara met all of her 'should have' developmental milestones, but papa Matt thinks baby Kara needs work on lifting her head up on tummy time. At this age, she can reach for toys and grasp with her fingers. Because she likes to grasp for things nearby, during feeding, baby Kara likes to grab onto the bottle. For now, she is not strong enough to hold the bottle on her own and she is not willing to hold it for the entire duration of her feeding, but we will work on it. Another new development is being able to laugh out loud and hold hands together. The first time she laughed out loud was for the dogs. She saw Tobi (the black dog) walked by and started laughing in delight. Other old developments that she have already completed include smile, squeal in delight, hold head steady, bear weight on legs, baby talk and turn towards noise.

Every time mama Lyanne take baby Kara to visit Great Grandmother, Great Grandmother keep pointing out how much baby Kara looks like mama Lyanne when she was a baby. That comment made mama Lyanne curious and wanted to check if it was true. She took pictures of baby Kara with the same pose as mama Lyanne's baby picture pose, and compared (see below).

The age might not be the same, but not bad eh? Mama Lyanne tried looking for papa Matt's baby pictures and see if there's any baby Kara's resemblance. Surprisingly, baby Kara resembled Uncle Gabe's baby picture almost to the exact!

Kara's 1st Day at Day Care

Yes, today was baby Kara's 1st day at Yamuna's Day Care (Yammi for short). It was quite a day for mama Lyanne. After this morning, mama Lyanne now understand why mothers have such a hard time leaving their baby with another person's care, especially when the person taking care of her baby is a stranger! When mama and papa Wong arrived at Yammi's place, mama Lyanne felt fine. She was so sure that she'll have no problem going to work today, especially after how well it went on Friday. Oh boy...mama Lyanne was so wrong! When auntie Yammi opened the door, mama Lyanne handed auntie Yammi all of baby Kara's diaper and milk needs. Mama Lyanne was worried that auntie Yammi will have a hard time understanding baby Kara, especially on the first day so she proceeded to tell auntie Yammi all the reasons why baby Kara would cry; how baby Kara fusses during her feeding because she needed to get rid of a burp otherwise she won't continue, and how baby Kara cries really really loud if she's too hot, so on and so forth.

"Ok, I think that's about it, " mama Lyanne said to auntie Yammi. "Everything you need is in here (pointing to baby Kara's diaper bag). Her diaper cream, pacifier and extra bottle nipple are in the small pocket," said mama Lyanne. "Now, I just need to get myself out of your house," said mama Lyanne as she realized that she didn't want to leave.

Auntie Yammi wanted to re-assure mama Lyanne that it's normal so she told mama Lyanne the story of how she saw one of the mother cried in the parking lot for at least 30 minutes before driving off to work. And for some reason, that story somehow acted like a switch button and the next thing mama Lyanne felt were tears running down her cheeks. It wasn't just a single tear, but it was like a fountain of water. It came so unexpectedly that it even surprised mama Lyanne herself. It was such a sudden rush of emotions going through mama Lyanne, thinking all the possible 'what if' scenario that made mama Lyanne became more and more worried by the minute. What if auntie Yammi is not a good babysitter, letting baby Kara cry and cry all day? What if auntie Yammi don't understand what baby Kara wants or needs? All of these 'what if's' wasn't doing any good for mama Lyanne.

Even after mama Lyanne got to work, and just telling her co-workers what happened made mama Lyanne teared up again. An hour into work, mama Lyanne was back to her normal self again. She only made 1 phone call to auntie Yammi at 10am to check if things were OK with baby Kara and mama Lyanne couldn't wait to pick up baby Kara again.

430pm came around and mama Lyanne was packed and ready to leave work. She went to pick up papa Matt from Medtronic in Northridge, then papa Matt drove the rest of the way to aunti Yammi's place. Mama Lyanne couldn't wait to get baby Kara that, as soon as papa pulled up to the drive way, mama Lyanne was already unbuckling her seat belt and ready to rush out the car even before papa Matt had a chance to turn the engine off. Mama Lyanne was so happy to see baby Kara. It was clear that baby Kara had no problem staying at Day Care. In fact, baby Kara had a lot of fun interacting with all the big kids as we all know how noisy and chattery baby Kara can be.

By day 2, mama Lyanne was completely fine. No tears, no worrisome and no more 'what if's'. The rush of emotions came as quickly as it went.

Mama Lyanne's 1st Day Back to Work

Today was mama Lyanne's 1st day back to work after what seemed like a short 3 month maternity leave. =( It was also baby Kara's 1st day with papa Matt alone without mama Lyanne. Mama Lyanne didn't have any problem leaving baby Kara at home with papa Matt. The only thing that crossed her mind, driving to work, was whether papa Matt would be able to handle and know how to take care of baby Kara by himself without mama Lyanne's help. Amazingly, mama Lyanne was not worried, but was more curious to see how it would turn out for papa Matt and she wondered if papa Matt would call mama Lyanne at work to ask about what to do with baby Kara.

When she got to work, all of her co-workers, especially female co-workers, came by to make sure that mama Lyanne was OK leaving baby Kara at home. Some even gave mama Lyanne suggestions to consider working part-time as an option if she ever needed it. They even assured her that it's OK to take time off if it's needed. Mama Lyanne couldn't understand why it's such a big deal. She felt fine leaving baby Kara with papa Matt this morning and she didn't feel any kind of separation anxiety when she left the house. Oh well, maybe other mothers have had emotional trouble leaving their baby at day care. Mama Lyanne just shrugged it off and continued the rest of the day catching up on emails and chatting with her colleagues. Before mama Lyanne knew it, it was already time to go home. To mama Lyanne's surprise, papa Matt had no problem taking care of baby Kara. In fact, he didn't call mama Lyanne for help. Instead, it was mama Lyanne that called to check up on papa Matt.

Cinco De Mayo at Uncle Mike's

We celebrated Cinco de Mayo at Uncle Mike's with Auntie Jennifer, Auntie Jane, Uncle Ton and cousin Ellie. The dinner was, of course, delicious Mexican food.

Now-a-days, when we pack for baby Kara to go out, we bring the play mat for her to enjoy. She was happy and fine for the fist half of the evening. However, shortly after dinner, baby Kara started to cry and cry. Mama Lyanne and papa Matt couldn't figure out whether she was crying because of being too hot or whether it was because she wanted her nap. Mama Lyanne tried to rock her to sleep, but baby Kara wouldn't have it. She cried and she cried!

So mama Lyanne took her clothes off to see if she was hot and maybe she wanted to cool down. It helped stop her cry momentarily, but after a few minutes she cried and cried again. She cried so loud that we decided to head home.

Baby Kara continued to cry in her car seat and inside the car waiting for papa Matt to finish his conversation with Uncle Mike. But as soon as the car engine started and started driving home, baby Kara stopped crying. A few minutes into the drive, she fell asleep! At hind's sight, baby Kara wanted her nap. Yes, that's one of the few fusses about baby Kara. Besides crying for milk, wanting to be burped, being too hot, she also cries for sleep/nap time. Amazingly, we haven't had baby Kara cry for diaper change. Maybe that's because mama Lyanne and papa Matt have been good about changing out her diapers. =)

Kara and her Active Legs

Baby Kara has been doing a lot of silly things with her legs. Mama Lyanne have some pictures and video proof of some examples but other examples she doesn't. Early on, as soon as baby Kara was able to kick her legs, she would be able to kick off her pants entirely off of her legs! There were many times where mama Lyanne would put a pair of long pants on baby Kara to keep her warm and walk away to do things around the house (baby Kara is not mobile yet so mama Lyanne feels safe to walk away for a few minutes). And each time mama Lyanne came back to check on baby Kara, her pants would be lying a few inches away from her feet while her legs were exposed to the cold chilly air in the house. The first time around, mama Lyanne thought she was losing her mind. But after awhile, and having witnessed baby Kara's 'kicking pants off' ability, mama Lyanne was glad that she wasn't going crazy. To combat baby Kara's kicking ability, mama Lyanne resorted to the long pants onesies. Even then, once baby Kara starts kicking, her legs wouldn't stay in her pant legging. Her legs would be all bunched up in the

belly area of the onesie while the pant legging just hangs lose without any legs in them. The closest proof of her wild legs was just 2 days ago when, but this time around, baby Kara kicked so hard that her foot managed to escape out of the opening in between the buttons of her onesie near her belly area. This happened when papa Matt had set her down to change her diaper.


Along with kicking her pants off, baby Kara also kicks her blankey off and mama Lyanne captured it on video! Now-a-days, to keep baby Kara warm during the night, mama Lyanne would layer baby Kara with thick clothes so that if baby Kara kicks her blanket off in the middle of the night, she would still be warm. That was also tricky to do because mama Lyanne had to balance between not having too much clothes where baby Kara would start fussing over being too hot and not have too little clothes where baby Kara might get cold without a blanket. For during the day time, mama Lyanne came up with the idea of burrito wrapping baby Kara with a blanket. This means that the blanket would be tucked underneath her, almost like eggroll style. The burrito wrapping method only works 50% of the time. The other 50% is when baby Kara wins the kicking battle.

The picture above is off topic, but baby Kara has a tendency to rub her eyes and face every time she's sleepy for nap time. Mama Lyanne wasn't sure whether baby Kara really wanted to cover her eyes with her arms or whether this is just a coincident. Who knows...only time will tell.

Kara with Yee-Po

Every Sunday, papa and mama Wong try their best to take baby Kara to see Yee-Po. Yee-Po loves spending time and gets very happy to see baby Kara. Baby Kara, as usual, gives Yee-Po her full attention and responds back with her jibber jabber baby babbling talk.

At 2.5 months, baby Kara's legs are very strong (and so is her neck). Side tracking about her neck, mama Lyanne forgot to point out that, within the 2nd day after birth, baby Kara was able to lift her own head up for a split second. It was 1.5-2 days after baby Kara was born. Great Uncle Hoa, Great Auntie Yvanna, and Great Grandmother came to the hospital to visit mama Lyanne and see baby Kara. At the time, mama Lyanne had just finish nursing and was in the middle of burping baby Kara (in the sitting position). Of course, being just a newborn, leaning forward in a sitting position had baby Kara's head looking downward. But when Auntie Yvanna was talking and came closer to look at her new grand niece, baby Kara (being noisy and curious) heard her voice and immediately lifted her head up to see who was talking to her. After satisfying her curiosity, baby Kara let her head drop back down to finish her burp. If it wasn't for Great Auntie Yvanna, along with Great Grandmother and Great Uncle Hoa, being there to witness it, no one would believe the story. Right then, Great Grandmother had predicted that baby Kara will be a very noisy girl!

Now, back to baby Kara's legs. Yes, she also has very strong legs. Baby Kara is able to 'stand' when you hold her in a standing position. She is able to hold up her weight. This development also had Yee-Po predicting baby Kara will be able to walk early.

Every month, papa and mama Wong keeps track of baby Kara's development. As of now, baby Kara is well beyond her milestones. She gets startled at loud noise, smiles when people talk to her, turns toward loud noise, goos and gas, and hold head steady when upright. The only thing that she needs work on is her tummy time. She can lift her head up, but only for a short time. But no worries on that! Mama Lyanne will make sure baby Kara gets her practice at home.