Cute stories

Allison remembered the English and viet word for clap hands! She did it when I said it in both languages.

She can give kisses on demand on our cheeks when we tell her to. She'll make the sound "mmmuah!"

I gave her a snack of cheese and crackers. She only wanted the crackers (no surprise there). I thought I could trick her by melting the cheese onto the cracker. But then she peeled it off O_O.

She can climbed over the boxed borders all on her own now, to go inside or outside of the play area. She'll put one leg up, hoist her body over it to be on top, then knows how to twist her legs down to the other side. It's kinda cute. I let her walk around the house wherever she wants (closing the bathroom and master bedroom doors). I figure that I rather let her be free and explore so that she can let her curiosity be. Then things won't seem as grand bc she never had access to it before.

First Vietnamese word!

I had been reminded to continue to teach Allison Vietnamese words. The way to teach a baby isn't really to just talk in whole sentences. You have to use one or two word phrases, emphasize it, and use it consistently.
In the past, she understood the Viet and English word for "clap hands". She would do it on command when it is said. I hadn't done it in a while so I wonder if she remembers.
Every time I go to change her diaper, I say "change diaper". Lately I say it in Vietnamese, which is "thay tã". Yesterday while on the changing table (@14.5 months) she repeated that word every time I said it, like five times. It was cool and cute. But this morning, Tom went to change her diaper. He didn't say that word, but she did!! So she understands! So cool. I need to teach her some more short words. I think she understands more but can only say words with mainly vowels.

She's getting bigger..

Here is a pic at 14.5 months. She's getting taller. Still 22 lbs since 13 months. Able to climb out of the boxed border in the living room.

She's able to drink 100% coconut milk now. She kills the entire 8 Oz bottle of milk now at the daycare and eats most of her breakfast and lunch.

I'm going to start moving away from pumping during the mid day and reserve nursing for just the morning and evenings.

This morning was funny. She wakes up at 6 and cries softly. It's still dark in there and when I come in, she says, "oh... Ma?" haha.

She and I watch a daytime talk show together called The Real which has a catchy theme song. Every time it comes on, which is often, she claps her hand. She started doing that to the theme song of The King of Queens, too.

Happy Halloween!

It was Allison's first year dressing up for Halloween at almost 14 months old. She was dressed as a butterfly fairy, a hand me down costume of cousin Alyna's. 
At church, every year there is a Harvest Day celebration.. The ballroom is transformed into a carnival style with game booths, chances to win candy and fun prize toys. They hire a popcorn machine guy, balloon artist and face painting artist. Allison had a lot of fun walking around this environment.

At her Preschool on Halloween, everyone including the teachers dressed up. They had a party and it was so cute to see her walking around with all the other dressed up kids.

On Halloween evening itself, we went to an event called Rise of the Jack O Lanterns. Thousands of pumpkins carved and lit up in intricate designs. We went to One Ngoai and it was fun.

That face though...

Fun girl

Pho Shizzle

She loves anything soup. We title this photo "eating the food of (half) her people"

Allison the escape artist

Sleep

I am so so proud of her for sleeping through the night last night, after a month of 3:30 am wakings. All it took was one night of 20 mins CIO for her to relearn how to self soothe. Since then she's been able to fall asleep on her own for bed time. Yesterday she wanted to go in her crib, and tonight she let me pat her to sleep. It's been so long since that happened before. Usually she would go ballistic when I put her in the crib. Keep it up, Allison!

Greetings

Allison is starting to "get it" in terms of interaction. She can give hi fives when prompted. One time the doc came in the room and waved "hi Allison" and she waved back and said hi! At night for bedtime routine we say goodnight to each room with a wave. One night I just said goodnight without waving and she waved! This morning we were in the hallway. She heard the sound of the front door opening (it was my mom) so she scurried down the hallway to see who it was. she was so happy to see ba ngoai (maternal grandma) and even did a happy dance :)

Coxsackie virus

I got a phone call today at 12:30 pm from the director at the preschool saying that Allison is showing signs of the Coxsackie virus, aka hand, foot, mouth virus. It's something that is easily passed from children to children. She caught it at the school for sure. One kid in another class had it on Monday and hasn't been back sick. I had to pick up Allison right away. Luckily I was already home, but this made me have to cancel my driving lesson, which I'm still not happy about. In hindsight, I could have let her taken her nap there and then picked her up.. 

We took her to her pediatrician to confirm and yes it's true. the visible signs are red pimple type bumps in the diaper area, hand and foot. Yesterday I did see many in the diaper area, and today there was only one pimple on the hand and one on the foot. She is not allowed back to school within 3 days. Good thing the weekend is here, so she only has to miss Monday. Ideally we keep her at home a few more days. This is not a serious illness and most kids get over it without any treatment. Bumps may form in the back of her throat in which it will make swallowing uncomfortable. 

• Hand, foot, and mouth disease, a type of coxsackievirus syndrome, causes painful red blisters in the throat and on the tongue, gums, hard palate, inside of the cheeks, and the palms of hands and soles of the feet.  
• 

In other news, we got the test results back which tested for dairy, egg, and food panel allergy. She has none, so that means we can try dairy again. She is low in iron so I will make sure to give her iron rich foods. Extracting the blood for those tests was pretty painful for Allison; 4 viles were required (another one for lead test) and the nurse lady squeezed her hand so hard...

Food musing

Yesterday I roasted a whole chicken. I cut up some meat and skin for Allison. After I put a piece of skin in her mouth, she smiled and her eyes opened wide. She loved it. She then proceeded to eat a lot of chicken meat with skin sprinkled in between. Then finished with Apple sauce for dessert. Good girl!

Tonight for dinner was Quinoa with chicken broth and a little bit of meat. She ate that very enthusiastically as well. Makes me very happy.

These past two morning were rough, tho. She wakes up at 3:30am. I nurse her but she is too awake, even babbling. We're not able to back to sleep. I resort to strolling her in the kitchen but by then we've lost some time. She falls asleep there. Yesterday tho she vomited all of the milk that she just drank, at 4:45am. All over me on the bed. It was rough for all of us.

1 year photoshoot

Today, we finally had our family photoshoot. It was originally supposed to be on her actual 1 year birthday, Sept 3, but due to mis-communication, it didn't happen. It then got postponed another time due to rain. So glad today finally happened. We picked Allison up from daycare at 3:45pm and then headed over to the Nassau Museum of Art. They have a beautiful outdoor garden area where many people use to do photoshoots. It's free too, which is even better. Allison had so much fun running around in the grass!! I bought a rainbow set of balloons and she had soo much fun playing with them. One hour flew by really quickly and we had to end a little early because it started to rain. I hope we got some good shots! Here is the only video that we captured of the session. See how happy she is!

Give me your normal poo

Allison has had diarrhea every day for two whole weeks now, ever since I gave her eggs one time. Doc gave me the green light after she turned one. I suspect that she has an intolerance rather than an allergy. We will be testing her for food allergies (milk, egg, food panel). Hope this will she'd some light. So yesterday she didn't have a bowel movements at all and then this morning, finally, a normal bowel movement. I had purchased probiotics yesterday to give to her but didn't have a chance to before the bowel movements got normal.

Transition to coconut is going slowly but surely. She takes one 8 Oz bottle during the day now. 2 oz of coconut milk for 2 week, now increased to 3 oz for another week or two. She fought the bottle a little at the beginning of the 3 oz week but this is just what we'll have to do to get her used to it.

I am still breastfeeding her in the mornings and evenings. I would like to wean by 18 months. To do that, she has to be able to drink 100% of coconut milk. Then that can be served during the day and evening. I am more nervous about weaning the morning session. It helps us all to get extra sleep bc she wakes at 4:30am 8 hrs sleep from 8:30 pm) .

Yesterday we eliminated the nursing that happens during bedtime itself. I thought it was a requirement for her to get drowsy. But it seems that as long as she is tired, she will go down as long as Tom is there to pat her away to sleep. I can't do it bc she will just want to be close to me. Tom left the room after 5 mins and she only cried for a few seconds before sleeping. I am so proud of her!!!

By the way, at one years old, she only needs a total of 16 oz of milk a day.

Family

I am thankful for a weekend in which my family got to spend quality time with Allison. We slept over their house on Sat night. Everyone was so delighted to wake up to her on Sun morning.

Mischievous

I fell asleep on the couch while Alli played by herself in the play area. I wake up and don't hear a sound or see her. I found her underneath this side table. She snuck in through the left to go inside to pick at some cotton like thing on this air cleaning filter that was under the table. Bad Alli!

Cousin love

Here is a pic that my sister found of a drawing from Alyna at age 5. It is very sweet.

Fall 2014

Today I finally put away her smaller sized clothing (mostly summer season) and went through my inventory of next sized up clothing (fall and winter season). The weather is getting colder so I finally have a reason to do this which usually takes some time. All of the inventory comes from Allison's cousin, Alyna. I am grateful to have many clothes to choose from. There are a few that I would like to buy myself though. I recently bought her a winter coat using store credit.

Allison is still fighting a cold. It seems like ever since she started daycare she is always sick. She's also been having diarrhea for a week now and I believe it is due to egg white intolerance (not allergy). So I will be holding off on testing dairy on her just bc we don't want to deal with diarrhea.

The past two weeks she has been a very poor eater, sometimes not eating any meal all day. I'm so happy that for the past two days, she's been more open to eating all 3 meals. I hope it stays that way!

personality snapshot

I know it doesn't count when a parent says this about their own child, but Allison has a really cute personality. She is quite playful, and will do a variation of peekaboo where she hides her face and then reappears. She'll hide behind some peice of object or simply turn her head away and then bring it back. It is coupled with a high and low pitched sound she makes to differentiate the "peek"and the "boo", if that makes sense.

Anyway, here are a few other personality traits of little miss A @ 1 years old:

• active (always on the move)
• curious (always touching and grabbing new things)
• social (makes eye contact, seems to draw energy from presence of people around her)
• happy (always smiling)
• mischievous (throws folded laundry on the floor)
• silly (hold objects in her teeth like a cigar)

Things she can do:

• clap her hands on command (we simply say "clap hands"in English or Vietnamese)
• play chase
• say "mama"or "dada"
• her walking is improving day by day since 11 months. She can walk around for longer periods of time before losing balance. 

emotional thoughts

Tonight, as I put Allison to bed, I held her in my arms in an upright position. I love it when she is tired, she rests her head on my shoulders. Perhaps because classical musical was playing in the background, it got me very emotional. Allison is growing up, both in size and personality, and she is slowly escaping me. She will never be this little and fit into my arms the way she does now. She loves me so much now, but in a few years it will be a different kind of love and dependency. So Allison, while you are this little, I will hold you just a little bit tighter, and just a little bit longer. I will baby you just a little bit more, because these moments won't last forever.

Allison says a new word!

http://youtu.be/ta6bDtHuDxs

Allison is officially 1 years old!!!

Today is Allison's official birthday! I'm so happy that this day is finally here. Tom and I took the day off to spend with her (that means she didn't go to daycare). We were going to do a photography shoot with a professional but that had to be postponed. We wanted to do something fun with her but today she had a consistent fever of 102 degrees. Her body was very hot to the touch. She was very tired and took 2 long naps instead of one, and at the end of the day we realize that she teething. I felt the 7th tooth cutting her gum. This explains the drooling, food refusal and ear pulling.

Anyway, now that Alli is officially one, I can experiment with more foods such as egg, shellfish, honey and cow's milk, which isn't advised before one. Cow's milk is still something we will experiment with given the fact that she had an allergy to cow's milk protein (casein) which we discovered at 9 months.

This also means that I have been blessed to have been able to exclusively breastfeed her for one year, which is a major accomplishment! I am very thankful that it has been a pleasant experience for me, which is not always the case with everyone. My supply was in great danger at one point but thankfully was able to bring it up and maintain it.

wearing a pretty dress that paternal grandma bought for her. 

Preschool musings

today starts a new "semester" at the preschool; little A moved up to the next level class; new teacher and classmates; had a parent teachers meeting last Fri; she starts eating school provided meals (that means I don't have to provide it anymore and means she will be eating all new things); will be learning all kind of things including sign language; and will be following a stricter schedule of activities. This is kind of surreal to me given that she is only 1 years old; thought this would happen only around 3-4-5 years old. Good luck "little miss A"!

Decorations from Alli's birthday party

The photo montage was a DIY project the night before. cardboard box wrapped with repurposed wrapping paper; repurposed ribbon tied to the back; pics held up by tiny red clothing clips that I picked up in a Chicago craft store years ago. I splurged the $6 on the glitter letter stickers bc it was the perfect color and so fun. I also made that headband out of felt paper. 

This is the 5x7 pic that I had printed which went into the 1st year frame

This is a memory book where I can fill in things about the baby's first year

Rainbow themed decor

(stock photo)

wall decor - the top piece with the 1s and the animal faces I repurposed to decorate a printed menu that I created for each table (animal and 1 on each side of the fold)

party favor for the kids

also, each balloon centerpiece was held down by a clear container filled with skittles. The containers are originally toothpick holders; it was perfect bc there was a small hole which I could put the strings through and then tie on the inside. The balloons and skittles were a hit with the kids.

hi all

it's been 6 months since I last posted to this blog. Life has been busy with balancing work and family life. So much has happened developmentally with Allison, it's hard to keep up. We just celebrated Allison's first birthday on Aug 31, with her real birthday being Wed, Sept 3. I will be retroactively posting things to this blog bc I want to be able to look back at it in the future (and also so that close family members can see in a central location). So, I hope you won't mind the flood of emails you might get if you subscribe to this blog. Cheers!

Family photo shoot (4 months)

 

Give me your poo...

Ever since we started Allison on solids, she has been constipated. First week of rice cereal, no poo. Had to give her prune juice which had prebiotics in there. A lot of poo came out and I was satisfied. Second week, butternut squash, no poo. Prune juice didn't work this time. I had to force it on her, even feeding it with a syringe, drop by drop. Luckily I found out that food that start with the letter p help - prunes, peas, peaches, plum. Peas is one of the next foods I was going to serve her so I did and it worked! Twice! Never been so happy to smell poo. I made a good amount for the freezer by putting in an ice cube tray and then transfering it to a container.

6 month update

On March 3, Allison turned 6 months old. She is also 16 lbs now. I can already see things starting to change. She is able to stay up for 2 hrs after the first feeding instead of 1.5, and able to stay up for 3 hours during the day instead of 2 hours. For feedings, we still have her eating every 2 hours with an avg of 4 oz, I will try to space that out further and eat more each time. Today, I switched all the bottle nipples from level 1 to 2 to have a faster flow.

Allison is rolling around and around like a pro now. We put her on a blanket on the floor for the first time and she rolled over multiple times. She is getting stronger, too. When she grabs onto our finger to pull herself up, she pushes off her feet to a standing position.

We will be feeding her solids very soon. Avocados will be her first food, I am just waiting for it to ripen. Then sweet potatoes, peas, and butternut squash. It will be in puree form. She's definitely ready and I look fwd to seeing what new adventures this will bring.

Videos of when we first discovered that she can roll over multiple times:

She keeps going and going and going...

Back to Work

On Mon, Jan 6, 2014, I returned to the office. It has since been one full work week. I worked from home on Thurs & Fri Jan 2-3 so that we can have a trial run and it was a good thing we did, to iron out any kinks. There were a couple of things that worried me about returning:

1. At the moment, Allison would feed for only 5 minutes before crying in pain from teething. I worried she may not eat enough, which I needed in order to sleep train her during that same time period. 
2. I worried that she would not be happy that her mom wasn't around and worried that she would give her grandmother a hard time (i.e. crying a lot)
3. My biggest concern about returning back to work is that work demands would not allow me to have a work-life balance that I need. I do not want to work beyond normal hours of 9-5pm. 

I was prepared to consider leaving my job if it proved too difficult to be away. Praise be to God that everything is working out very well and that I feel very comfortable going back to work now. 

1. Mom was able to feed her a bottle right when she woke up and was still sleepy and she finished a full amount! Mom joked that she passed the test and won't be fired, hehe. Coincidentally, the first day I was away, Allison stopped having feeding pain and could finish a whole bottle even while awake. 
2. Allison has absolutely no problem with my mom and they get a long just fine. Mom keeps her entertained by singing, taking, praying, playing activities to help with development, etc. 
3. Also coincidentally, Allison slept through the night for the first time.. the night leading up to my first day back. Amazing. 
4. I spoke to my manager about my needs and they will try to be understanding. The projects for this year are more "business as usual"and not high profile therefore should be more manageable, which means not too stressful. 
5. I plan to work from home on Tues and Thurs so that I can see baby during the day. This alleviates the fact that I don't see her most of the day on Mon, Wed, and Fri. It also allows my mom to come a little later and leave a little earlier 2x a week b/c the days that I do go in the office, she has to come a little earlier and leave a little later. 
6. At this age, her daytime schedule is getting very regular and makes it very easy for the caretaker to know what to do next. Right now she eats every 2 hours, has 4 naps with predictable duration and predictable awake time duration. 

My first day in the office was ok. I quickly figured out the "mother's room" logistics w.r.t. pumping. During the day I am distracted with work so I didn't miss the baby as much. But when I came home and saw her, I felt so sad for being away. I was just glad to WFH the next day. The days I do go in, I rush home to make it in time to see her before I have to put her to bed. At that time she is tired from the day so is not as playful. I would say that I see her for about 30 mins in the morning and 30 mins in the evening. Again, so glad I can see her more during the day on Tues and Thurs. I also nurse her on those days. 

About the idea of taking off the first year... I think it's for the best that I don't. The baby and my mom are healthy and getting along, I really have no reason to. It would be harder for an older baby to get used to someone else after being alone with their mom for so long.  Being away for 4 months, I felt a little rusty getting back into work topics; being away for a year would be even harder. Since I would eventually go back to work after 1 year, it will just make it even harder to want to go back; it may even affect my confidence in my skills, especially if I have to interview for a new job. 

how grandma keeps her head warm, hahaha

way to sleep on the job, grandma. hahahah

Snow cub

Sleep Training

Prior to any sleep training, we would rock Allison to sleep for naps and bedtime. When she cries in the middle of the night (acronym MOTN), I would get up to feed her, sometimes 1-3 times. The MOTN sessions would be quick because she sleep-eats and goes back to sleep without a fuss.

@17 weeks, the week that she will turn 4 months old, my friend brought it to my attention that babies should not need to eat in the MOTN anymore, but that they will wake up during that time out of habit. Since Allison has given me 6-7-8 hr stretches in the past, I always thought that she could naturally sleep through the night (12 hrs) on her own and that I wouldn't have to train her to do that, I would only need to train her how to fall asleep on her own. So I decided that I would no longer feed her in the MOTN, I will just help her fall back to sleep if she wakes up by patting her body (bc I didn't want to let her cry). The weak link in that plan would be that it relies on ME to do something for HER. The whole point of sleep training is to train a baby how to go back to sleep once they wake up in the MOTN, which they will. For example, we adults probably wake up several times a night, stirring or changing positions, and we go right back to sleep. Babies do not know how to do this yet and need to be trained.

So I decided that I have to do some formal training, which will apply to bed time as well as MOTN. 4 months is the perfect age in which professionals say we can start sleep training. At this age, they may be hungry in the MOTN but they don't have to eat (same like for us adults) b/c night time is for sleeping while day time is for eating (have to make sure they eat enough). Waiting til they are a little older will make training harder because they can roll around and are more mobile.

So what method of sleep training should I do? Based on research, there are about 3 different methods: cry it out, no cry, or controlled crying.

Cry-it-out: Put to bed drowsy but asleep. Let them cry for as long as it takes until they fall asleep. If they wake up in the MOTN, let them cry it out. This can go on for hours. I am not comfortable with this bc I know Allison will not handle it well. Sometimes this is the only thing that will work for other babies, as a last resort.

No cry: Rock baby until fully alseep. Go to your baby when he cries, picking him up, and putting him back down as many times as necessary. This is pretty much babying them. The problem I see with this is that there is a huge dependency on the parent, which defeats the purpose of learning to sleep or sooth on their own.

Controlled crying: Put to bed drowsy but asleep. When they cry, wait 3 mins before going in. Console by patting but do not pick up. Leave in 2 mins. If they cry again, wait 5 mins. Repeat. If they cry again, wait 10 mins. Repeat as neccessary. Wait the same amount as the 3rd time if its the same session. If bb falls asleep but then wakes up later, start over from the beginning. Each night, increase the amount of time that you wait. This website inspired me to try this method.

Number of Minutes to Wait Before Responding To Your Child

Day 1 - 3 min (1st wait); 5 min (2nd wait); 10 min (3rd wait); 10 min (subsequent waits)

Day 2 – 5 min; 10 min; 12 min; 12 min (subsequent waits)

Day 3 – 10 min; 12 min; 15 min; 15 min (subsequent waits)

Day 4 – 12 min; 15 min; 17 min; 17 min (subsequent waits)

Day 5 – 15 min; 17 min; 20 min; 20 min (subsequent waits)

Day 6 – 17 min; 20 min; 25 min; 25 min (subsequent waits)

Day 7 – 20 min; 25 min; 30 min; 30 min (subsequent waits)

I took a lot of detailed notes on how Allison did - below is a short detail. To summarize, I had to let her cry multiple times but each time, she fell asleep on her own. She got better and better each day and eventually slept through the night on day 4! Coincidentally, that was the night before my first day back in the office (Jan 6, 2014). I am so proud of her.  One important thing is that we have to watch her nap schedules so that she wake up around 5pm in her last nap for a 7pm bedtime. Her morning wake up time is looking to be 6am.

Day 0: (MOTN) 5-10-15.
Day 1 (bedtime) 3-5-10-10. (MOTN) 3 & 3-5.
Day 2 (bedtime) 5. (evening) 5. (MOTN) 5 & 5 & 5.
Day 3 (bedtime) 0! (evening) 5. (MOTN) 10 & 10 & gave paci immediately
Day 4 (bedtime) 12 & cried 2 mins then stopped and fell asleep. (MOTN) slept through the night!
Day 5 (bedtime) cried a little then fell asleep. (evening) gave paci immediately. (MOTN) slept through the night!
Day 6 (bedtime) 0 bc I patted her til she got sleepy. (evening) gave paci immediately. (MOTN) really bad regression 3-10-10-10-10-15 where paci didn't help. 
Day 7 (bedtime) 0 bc I patted her til she got sleepy.  (MOTN) gave paci immediately. I consider this sleeping through the night. 
Day 8 (bedtime) 0 bc I patted her til she got sleepy. (evening) cried a little and stopped on her own. (MOTN) is tonight so let's see.

The first night was hard on me emotionally, to let her cry, even if controlled. Even after she fell asleep, I couldn't sleep because I was haunted by her cries. The subsequent nights was easier for me (and her) because I then realized that this is good for her. Crying will help her learn that she will not be assisted right away and that she has to self soothe. The one thing that is a must for her is to have her pacifier. Sometimes all we have to do is go in, pop it back in her mouth, and then she falls back asleep. Several days in, I decided to do that as soon as she cried in order to avoid prolonged crying. If she still continued to cry then I would let her cry for the appropriate duration. I need to do more research about pacifier dependencies to decide whether I want to wean her off of it now while it's still early or whether I will continue to let her use a pacifier until older like 2 yo. Already she is sucking her fingers during the daytime and we don't like that.

Regarding breast milk supply and demand... since there is no more MOTN feeding, either I have to let my body adjust to the decrease in demand by lowering the supply OR I have to create an artificial demand to keep up the supply. I have decided to wake up at 2:30am to pump in order to maintain my overall supply (which doesn't know the difference between night and day).

Anyway, hooray to easier bedtimes, her falling asleep on her own, and her sleeping through the night! Boo to still having a dependency on the pacifier.

Month 4 update

On Jan 3, 2014, Allison turned 4 months old :) Her checkup at the pediatrician shows that she is 14.5 lbs (70% percentile). She got more vaccination shots which she handled well and did not get a fever/fuss afterwards.

Here are some updates that happened between Dec 3 - Jan 3 (month 4):
@ 12-14 weeks is when we all noticed that baby seems to prefer her mom, and cries when other people hold her, even Tom. Then she stops crying when I hold her. It made me worry about when I go back to work, but I am happy to say that she doesn't seem to have this problem anymore. The 2 weeks of vacation that Tom took at the end of Dec helped to establish their bond; she was fine with her aunt Tina on Dec 21, and is doing well with my mom. However, today my father visited and she was cautious of him.
@ 15 weeks she rolled over from tummy to back!
@ 16 weeks, we noticed that Allison has started grabbing at things that are within reach, like a toy that is on her body, or our sleeves when changing her diapers, or a ribbon that happens to be dangling nearby. And then she likes to put it in her mouth. oh boy!
@ 16 weeks, bb is definitely teething. I feel a tooth on her bottom right side. Usually the bottom center teeth pop first. As a result of teething, she cries in pain after 5 minutes whether bottle fed or nursing and puts her hand in her mouth in that area. To combat that, we have had to feed her when she is drowsy (like after waking up). Glad to say that it is back to normal after 2 weeks. This will likely happen again for the next tooth.
@17 weeks, she is constantly sucking on her fingers now, 2 or 3 fingers at a time. Today, I took her left hand out of her mouth, so then she put her right hand in. When I take the right hand out, she puts the left one in. Silly girl!
@ 17 weeks, we started sleep training her. More on that in a separate post.

bedtime Bible story

quiet morning

second hand mobile

staring contest

cooking with mommy

meeting some of our friends for the first time

starting to grab

turning from back to side

eating the closest flesh around