After bath

Sleep training - so hard!!

You won't be able to see anything in this video but you will hear Claire cry. Tonight is the first time that we really tried to let her "cry it out" - i.e. cry herself to sleep so that she will learn to fall asleep on her own. She cried for about 15 mins (Grandma was on her bedside keeping her company during the first five miuntes). She cried so hard that when I finally picked her up, she was soaked in sweat. She was very upset, even in my arms, she continued to cry with all her strength. It was really hard on everyone, she seemed so traumatized (even though we took turns to assure her every few miuntes). I tried to nurse her and sing to her after, she calmed down a little bit but then she vomited everything out.

Antoine does not think that we should try again. Though I feel like I am more prepared and I know that it is going to be hard. Still, it is against all your instinct to see her cry like this and not pick her up.

autumn colors

A new sweater knitted by grandma -with Claire on one sleeve and Cadoux on the other.

"I am born the year Obama is elected president"

Papa multi-tasking: preparing for his class, playing with Ming Ming, and watching election results on TV.

Finally, the event of 2008: the Obama presidency! (yeah, let's be more hopeful and not let the financial meltdown be the defining event of the year.)

"Yummy! My toes taste so good!"

First Halloween

We did not plan to dress up Ming Ming for Halloween. But then Grandma did not like the idea of Mingming being left out. So she made this last miunte outfit for her - out of my old clothes and hat and socks.

Downtown mall

UVA - hundreds of kids and their families gathered at the lawn for treat or trick

食糊仔/ Rice cereal

節瓜腿 / les jambons pour noel

Her changing table plus fantasy corner...

small steps, big accomplishments

It is an amazing thing to watch a baby grow. During a long time she cannot manage to hold these colorful balls, and then all of a sudden she just does it (I wish that I can do the same thing with my roolerbalde). Now she loves playing with them (Merci Maryse pour le cadeau!). I guess they all like doing the new things that they have just learnt, one time she even woke up during the night just to practice holding her legs.

See how much she has grown / 長得好快

四個半月/ 4 and a half month...

一個月時/ one month old...

Looking back, I can't believe how much and how fast she has grown. I am already nostalgic of her baby days even though she is still a baby.
At her four month check up, she weights 16 lb 6 oz (7.44 kg) and measures 26.5 inch (67cm).

claire rit

明明喝粥 / Bumbo baby eating congee

The Bumbo baby sitter works great. She can totally sit in there on her own.

Grandma feeding Mingming some congee (only the soup, no rice). This is the second time we try to give her something other than milk (the first try is with congee as well). Now she keeps looking at us whenever we eat, but when we actually try to feed her with a spoon, she is not that interested. Finally we put congee in her bottle and let her drink it on her own, and it worked better that way.

sitting up / 和花兒比高

没花兒高 .....

串門 / Civa & Rana

Ming Ming trying to engage Civa...

The family of Civa and Rana - two twins with Chinese mother, American father, and grandparents from Shanghai - visited us on Saturday. It was a lot of fun, especially when I heard my mother and the Shanghaiese grandparents singing cultural revolutionary songs together...

The twins talking to each other on the swing...