Grandma Arleen & Grandpa Martin

Mom and Dad brought me to Grandma Arleen's and Grandpa Martin's apartment in the East Village last Monday for a dinner with them. This was the third time I've been there. The first time was when I was exactly one month old. We arrived there at exactly 9.05pm, the time I was born, and the visit was a nice surprise to them. The second time was about several weeks after that. They 'volunteered' to baby sit me so Mom and Dad could have a nice dinner out, just the two of them. They went to Alta, Mom's favorite tapas restaurant at the corner of 10th st. and 6th Ave, while I was enjoying my time playing with Arleen and Martin.

Arleen & Martin are very special to us. They are our family here in the US, and they love Mom and Dad as their own children. Papa Martin even insists that I loook like him :-)

Whenever someone asks what has brought us together - an American Jewish couple and an Indian/Vietnamese Catholic couple - we often smile and start with, 'It's a long story...' All I can say here is that when Mom and Dad met them for the first time back in 2002, through a connection with Uncle Peter - Dad's brother in Indonesia, the four of them immediately felt in love with one another. Dad often jokingly 'complains' that Arleen and Martin fell in love with Mom and since then Dad's role has been chauffeuring Mom to see them every now and then.

Since then they have been with us in all of our milestones as a family. They hosted Mom's and Dad's wedding in their weekend house in Long Island; they joined Mom and Dad to Vietnam soon after to attend their wedding in Vietnam; they were there in the Labor and Delivery room with Mom and Dad waiting for me to be born; they were the first ones in the family to hear me crying upon arrival; and they called Mom and Dad almost everyday in the first several weeks thereafter to make sure we were doing ok.

I feel very much at home whenever I'm with them. I'm looking forwards to this summer to visit their house in Long Island and play on the beach with Papa Martin, together with all his grandchildren and especially with Adam who was born just 3 months ahead of me. (Mom actually bought two sets of identical HBS body suits with matching socks - one for me and one for Adam. You can see my photo in it here.) By then my grandparents from India will also be here and I'll be the happiest baby on earth with four grandparents by my side!

One month 'anniversary' of my first immunization round

This time a month ago I was sitting on Daddy's laps crying after getting 3 immunization shots in one well-baby visit.

Mom and Dad were quite anxious before the visit; especially Mom. She was anxious even a month earlier when the doctor told her that I would get my first round of immunization in the 1st month visit to the office.

Coincidentally, Mom and Dad read an article titled 'Just a spoonfull of sugar...' on the Wall Street Journal on April 2nd, which mentioned a tip that giving an infant a spoonful of sugar (dissolved in water, of course) right before taking the shots will help reduce the pain significantly. And so they did. They brought me to see Dr. Moureaux, 'armed' with a special pacifier designed for giving medicine to babies (they filled it with the sugared water in this case) and a bottle of Tylenol infant drops.

The first shot came as a surprise to me as I never felt something like that before. I was a bit shocked but didn't cry much as I didn't quite understand what was happening. The sugared water must have helped as well. The second one 'taught me' the 'strange' feeling I felt was in deed a painful feeling. My crying then was a bit longer; but again the sugared water helped. Just as I thought it was over, Dr. Moureaux gave the third one. This time I screamed!!! Luckily, that was the last one. The intense sweet sensation (also was very new to me) from the sugared water soon comforted me again.

The bandages that I had afterwards were actually quite cool. They had Elmo image printed all over. It looked as if I had Elmo tattoos on my legs! (You can see the Elmo image if you zoom in on the photo.)

Mom and Dad were afraid that I would had fever following the shots; however, everything went well and I only had to take Tylenol drops three times or so to soothe the uncomfortable feeling. Dad said I was very strong and I must have killed all the bacteria/viruses instantly!

The next round will be a month from now. Dr. Moureaux said that till I'm 18 years old, I'll probably get a total of 15 shots or so. Oh well... The only thing that makes me feel better is that everyone has to go through these and they have all survived!

Mother's Day

It's Mother's Day today! Dad and I went out to shop for a gift for Mom this afternoon; while she thought we were just out for a walk as usual. She thought we had forgotten about this occasion; even she herself used to forget she was now a mother, till Arleen reminded her the other day. (Arleen & Martin Richter are two very special people to us. I'll have a separate blog entry for them at another time.)

We bought a very nice top for Mom from Victoria's Secret. Dad even helped me write on the bag the line 'Happy Mother's Day'. You can imagine how the handwriting of a 3-month-old boy looks like...

When Mom opened the door for us, she couldn't believe her eyes. There I was, happily sitting in the Baby Bjorn carrier, carrying the Victoria's Secret bag in my hand. She was so touched to see how the two men (ok, 'one and a half' then, to be exact :-)) cared so much for her, and how this has really made her feel so appreciated as a Mother. She gave me and Dad lots of hugs and kisses. It's great seeing her so happy!

My first 12-hour sleep at night

Mom was elated this morning when I woke up at 7.15 am and she saw all the feeding bottles still on the rack - a sign that Dad didn't feed me last night around midnight as usual. My last bottle yesterday was around 7.30 pm, right after Dad gave me a bath. Wow, I'm really a BIG BOY now, sleeping for 12 hours straight!!!
Just a month ago, in my 2nd month's visit to Dr. Moureaux, she said that I should be able to sleep about 10 - 12 hours at night by the time I reached 3-month mark. Mom and Dad was in disbelief, as that sounded too good to be true, given that I still had 1 - 2 feedings at night back then. Tomorrow I'll be 3-month old; so Dr. Moureaux has it absolutely right.
Mom was so happy; at the same time a bit worried that I was very hungry. I was, in deed. I finished all the 7 ounces she gave me; while I only took in 6 ounces at a time before.
By the way, I take timing and scheduling very seriously. When Mom was close to the due date, Dad prayed that I would give him time to complete his project which was going crazily hectic at that time. The project finished on Feb 12th; at 2am on Feb 13th Mom had water broke. Dad got exactly what he wished for; the only thing was that he had no time to rest. After several nights of having conference calls with his colleagues in Asia working on the project, he was in for a long string of almost sleepless nights with my arrival.
Also talking about staying on schedule, my feeding times are very predictable: 7 am - 11 am - 3 pm - 7 pm - 11 pm. Of course there are some 15 - 30 minutes plus or minus around each time but in general I'm very on schedule. Mom and Dad often joke that they don't need to have clocks in the apartment anymore! Now that I can sleep much longer at night,I can take in more each time (7 - 8 oz) so I can drop the 11 pm feeding. It just takes a bit longer to drink more; and I need to have some play time about half way through. I love that though - stretching my arms and legs, having my little massage, cooing and playing with Mom and Dad, or sometimes just snoring :-)
p/s: In the picture you see here, I was having the 'micro fiber' blanket (a gift from Vankatesh and Vanitha in Toronto) on me and a pacifier in my mouth. These two are often my companions in nap times. They give me comfort in the beginning; however, I often spit out the pacifier and kick the blanket off after a while. And I don't want to tug my arms underneath the blanket. Never ever. No matter how hard Mom and Dad try to wrap the blanket around me, I often pull my arms out and put them on top of the blanket right away.

Cherry blossoms in Central Park

I saw cherry blossoms for the first time in my life (:-) the Sunday before last, when Mom and Dad took me to Central Park for a walk as usual.

The park seemed to glow in the vibrant colors of so many cherry trees blossoming at the same time. Most of them were in pink while a few were in white. They all looked like beautiful princesses showing off gorgeous gowns.

Spring came a bit late this year. There were few cherry blossoms earlier in April but the unusually cold weather then soon shut them off. Now, after several weeks later, the cherry trees were so eager to come out, and so quick to come out, that the park was transformed literally overnight.

There were so many people in the park that day. They were all beaming with smiles and laughter. I heard Mom humming the song 'It's a wonderful world'. It is, in deed.