on our porch

My two babies

Ming Ming is very excited about her baby brother. But sometimes she also gets jealous. The first few days after we got home, Ming Ming told me at bedtime, "I wish Emile was not so cute, everyone who came visit only cares about him." And another time, "You guys only cares about Emile, sometimes I feel like you don't see me at all when I got home." While I tried to make my case with her by pointing out how much time I spent with her after she got back from school, she said, "but you spent the entire day with Emile while I was at school, so you still spent more time with him," 

Now she is pretty okay sharing me with Emile while she does her violin practice and her homework. But she guards her story time before falling asleep jealously against Emile's invasion. The time I have to read to her while holding Emile, Ming Ming was so sad that I concluded that it is better to give Emile 2 oz of formula and send him Antoine's way while I preserve my special bedtime story with Ming Ming. 

Emile's first outing to the garden

Coming home with Emile

after three nights in the hospital, we came home on Sunday May 24th. 

Uncle Max and the kids welcomed us home with this poster on our porch.

flowers from the Rubys

lots of hugs, this one is from Jessica. 

Popo trying to settle Emile in his bassinet.

nursing. 

Same with Ming Ming, Emile is a hungry baby. We are supplementing 6 oz of formula everyday. I am still conflicted about it. But the experience with Ming Ming (my struggle to stop supplement was so painful during the first month of Ming Ming's life) makes me more relaxed this time around, it does not worth all that pain and struggle. I am still trying hard to breastfeed, but if it takes 2 oz of formula to make Emile feel contented, I am not going to beat myself up for it.

who can resist this expression!

Emile is born!

before going to the hospital

May 21st, we arrived at the University of Chicago hospital at 8:30am. My OB doctor made an appointment for me to be induced on my due date. The rationale being that I have a history of belated labor (Ming Ming was nine days late and induced) and we did not want to go past my due date for too long because of my age. I was fine with the idea of induction, the birth of Ming Ming was very short (12 hours total) and smooth. Yet, upon checking in, the doctor in charge told me that the average for induction is 24 hours and I had been extremely lucky the last time. It would probably be longer this time, and she was right. 

I was immediately hooked up with IV and then later pitocin. The contraction was still tolerable during most of the day, I was able to read a little. Most of the activities during the day consist of unhooking myself from the five lines connecting my body to different monitoring machines in order to go to the bathroom. At 1am on May 22rd, the contraction reached a much stronger level and the doctor suggested epidural, I took it. Sometime between 2 and 4am, the doctor broke my water and the pain become much more severe. We finally called the doctor in and luckily, one of them detected a sudden drop in the baby's heart rate, and suggested that we should stop pitocin as the baby was dropping into the birth canal at too fast a speed. The pain was more tolerable once they stopped giving me pitocin. I started trying to push around 3am. Then they asked me to stop and wait for them to set up. 14 doctor were in the room, with the main doctors in full surgery gears when they asked me to start pushing again. At that time I just assumed that all these doctors were interns and thus were there to observe. But Antoine thinks that they were getting ready for surgery because of the sudden dip in baby's heart rate. 

Anyway, much to everyone's relief, Emile was born after a few more pushes. He cried immediately once he came out: strong, loud cries. My baby is whole and sound. 

May 22nd holds special meanings for me. 12 years ago, my father passed away on May 22nd. The sheer coincidence of dates is a testament of the continuity of life, but it also reminds me of my father's undying devotion and love to his family and children. May 22nd is also the feast day of Saint Emile, which we did not know when we pick out the name Emile. 

Ming Ming was home with Popo. We called before 6am to tell them that Emile was born. Ming Ming was so happy that she decided to skip school (it was Friday) to come meet her baby brother right away. 

anti-theft device attached to baby's feet

Ballet Spring Concert 2015

This is Ming Ming's fourth spring concert with Hyde Park School of dance. After dancing as a bee, daisy, and rainbow, this year she graduated with a Swan dance - a much more mature dance with a white feathery costume and a beautiful performance.

thanks to her height and skin color, Ming Ming is easy to recognize in this video. Avi was in the same dance, the first girl who came out.




Lily was dancing in the same show -- the Lilac dance. It was quite a challenge to recognize her, too many blonde girls. but I think I capture her in this video.

Rockefeller children's choir - Easter concern

rehearsal:


real performance


thank you Jessica for the videos!

Ming Ming and the Chicago gang

Professor Duara is in town, and so are some colleagues who have graduated already, for the Association for Asian Studies annual conference. A memorable dinner last night at China Town. I took Ming Ming with me as I have so little time to spend with her these day.

Ming Ming's Book 1 Recital

After almost two years since she started the violin (May 2014, first blog post here), Ming Ming finally graduated from Suzuki Book 1. This past Sunday we had her book 1 recital at home to mark and celebrate the event.

a program prepared by papa Antoine

the audience was ready

Introduction by Ming Ming's violin teacher Miss Hilary. Piano accompanist: Liz. Liz was most generous with her time. She rehearsed with Ming Ming twice before the recital. We could not have done the recital without her!

Ming Ming played really really well for the first half of the program (from Twinkle to Etude), the quality of her sound and her playing was much better than during practice. Unfortunately I did not record any of it (camera malfunction, I recorded the intervals instead with camera filming the floor). This is the first video that I did caught on camera - Bach's Minute 1.

Bach's Minute 2


Ming Ming messed up a little while playing Bach's Minute 3 and Schumann's The Happy Farmer, but was able to stay calm and keep going. This is the last and longest song of the recital - Gossec's Gavotte. And Ming Ming played it really well!

graduation certificate

I baked a chocolate cake with caramel decoration and icing (can you see that it is a violin) to celebrate.

and a bundt cake with a recipe from Anne

after cake, the kids had a serious dancing party! Sometimes helped by Liz's piano playing...

the guys helping with Mike's business proposal 

a card from Nourit

and one from Avi

parenting/teaching tips to keep in mind

How schools ruined recess — and four things needed to fix it

Teacher spends two days as a student and is shocked at what she learns