Nika the Nanny

Alex has been blooming more than ever these days. I think a lot of this is owed to her wonderful nanny, Nika (shown here, holding Alex). They get to spend many hours together, playing different games.

Some of the more notable advances in Alex's development include her grasping at objects (see how she's holding her bug toy in the photo?), holding her head up on her own, and doing tummy time (where she's in a puah-up position with her head up) for several minutes without fussing.

Unfortunately, she is also in a phase where she does not like to be held by anyone besides me or her nanny. Even when her father picks her up lovingly, Alex starts to protest with tears. It's also important for Alex's daddy to start spending regular amounts of time with her, so that she associates him with fun and happy times. Slowly but surely, if this happens, Alex will love hanging out with both of her parents!

The 100 Day Birthday

On February 12th we celebrated Alex's 100th day birthday. In Korean culture, this is considered to be an important milestone. In the old days, babies frequently died of illness or other health issues before reaching that age; so when they did reach the age of 100 (days), it was considered pretty special.

For Alex's celebration, we broke it up into several parts. On Monday, Catherine's Korean American friends Monica and Grace came over; we had a little cake to celebrate. Monica had been one of the first people to see Alex after her birth, and had brought with her seaweed soup, which according to Korean culture is a great dish to give a mother right after giving birth.

On Thursday, February 12th, came the big party. Catherine invited several babies and moms from one of her new mommies groups. We put some balloons up and got Alex another cake (lucky girl!).

Alex and the other babies had a great time! I think she really liked the cake, too! I can tell you, we are all looking forward to what the next 100 days will bring...

The Best Days Yet!

Ok, maybe "the Best Days" is a bit of an overstatement. However, I'm so enjoying these days with our babydoll, Alex. She's truly blooming, although she's got to deal with the annoyance of teething.

Here's my most favoritest picture of her yet.


Even when Eric & I are out on date night, I close my eyes for a few seconds and imagine what she's doing. Of course, I'm hoping that she's having fun with her wonderful nanny, Nika... perhaps on one of her zillion playmats or watching a rattle with those big eyes.

I am so in loooove with my baby! sigh...

January: smiles and cries

This is another guest post from the proud daddy!

In the past few weeks, Alex is smiling more than ever. Her vocabulary is also improving by leaps and bounds. OK, she isn't actually saying any real words (although it sure sounds like she says 'Hi' every now and again) . But she sure makes a lot of different sounds. One particular cute habit she has is to let loose a rather loud, high 'whee' sound if she wants attention and we are not looking at her. As for the smiling, she usually is in her best mood right after she wakes up; at that point, she sometimes smiles almost constantly. One of the big challenges has been trying to get a pic of her when she smiles. It seems like every time we get the camera ready, she stops smiling the instant before the shutter clicks. But in the last few weeks we finally got a few photos of that elusive smile, although they came out a bit blurry.

But the last few weeks have also had plenty of tears. Alex has started to teethe; we can even see the little teeth starting to push up through her gums. It's a bit early, but every baby is different, and she seems to be ahead of the curve on this one. Maybe she didn't like it when I playfully made fun of her for not having any teeth? Anyway, with teething comes a lot of crying, and her sleep is sometimes not as smooth as it was before.

She is also getting more into playing with her various baby Einstein mats. She especially likes looking into the mirrors and grabbing onto the various hanging toys. One thing she really likes to do is hold onto a set of baby keys; one night she held onto them the entire evening. She is also starting to respond to a vigorously shaken rattle. This is a pretty good way to calm her down when she gets upset, actually.

Her 100th day birthday is soon coming up. That will be a big milestone for her, and I'll be sure to report all about it after it happens!!