Mommy's Diary

Month 9 - Reading - Showing personality - Trying table foods

November 1, 1999

Yesterday was the end of daylight saving time. I was wondering how Tiger would adjust to it. Well, last night he was so happy he didn't go to be until 9:00pm. That is 10:00 daylight saving time. I was pretty happy that he didn't need to adjust. Well, I was wrong. He usually gets up at 7:00 to 7:30 in the morning but this morning I heard somebody's talking and squealing at 6:18am. No need to guess. It's him!
We tried again with feeding Tiger something other than finger food. We made a little rice soup with fine ground pork. I was going to give him the third spoon when Fan said, "Stop that! I think he is gagging." He just crawled away and vomited on the way. Poor baby! I feel we are so bad! He didn't care about it at all though. He crawls near a hand basin and just started playing with it even before he totally recovered from the vomiting. And he laughed out loudly when he lifted it up. I feel so sorry! What a good baby I have! I think we need to back off a little. Obviously he is not ready. He does pretty good on rice crispies. He was actually trying to use his fingers. We just need to be slow.

October 31, 1999

We had a very good Halloween night! This afternoon Tiger was having a low fever (100 degree) and I was hesitated to go trick or treat at first. But he has been so active the entire day, it doesn't seem that he was sick. So I put him on his tigger suit. Cathie from the Office had given me a Tigger hat but when we tried it on Tiger the last couple of days he wouldn't ware it. Well, tonight we tried it again and by accident grandpa put it up side down. Guess what, Tiger didn't pull it off as what he did before. So it stayed on that way. Tiger has a little colorful Pooh box and I took that with him. Everybody liked him so much! One of our neighbor had turned their house a hunted house. The ghosts were crying inside and lights were flashing and trembling with the wind. I was a little afraid that Tiger might get scared when I approach the two ghosts. But Tiger just put up his serious face and didn't appear to be scared. Good Tiger! He got a whole box of candies. Well it's going to be somebody else's treat since he can't eat candies yet.

October 30, 1999

Starting yesterday, Tiger likes to say "En". He would keep saying "En, ... En, ... En." It seems that he wants to tell you something, but nobody can figure out what he means. This morning I was talking with grandpa while he hold Tiger. And Tiger started to say "En" again. When I stopped to talk to him, he looked at me as if he has nothing to do with it. Then grandpa and I talked some more. And I suddenly realized that I was saying "En" in between grandpa's sentences. This means that I understand and agree with what he said but I was saying it automatically without knowing it. Well, it seems that Tiger is simply imitating me. He says "En" when we are talking but clam up when we look at him. How funny!

October 28, 1999

Ok, we tried again. I made some potatoes boiled with meat sauce. I made small pieces of it and cooled it and gave it to Tiger. He loved it! He grabbed it using his hand (he doesn't know to pick something up using two fingers yet) and shovel it down to his mouth. I was being so happy when suddenly his face becomes red. I thought "It must have been too dry!" so I offered him his water cup. But he pushed it away and he finally vomited out. Well, there was this quite large piece of potato in the mess of his throw up. Apparently he liked it too much and didn't chew or mash it before swallow it. Fortunately he only vomited several mouthful but not everything he just ate. But he must be very uncomfortable because some of the stuff came out from his nose. He cried quite angrily. Well, this ended our another attempt to feed him something other than simple baby food.

October 21, 1999

Well, aren't things always funny. Tiger will eat anything you want him to play with but not to eat. But now the time comes when we do want him to try to eat something. We gave him several small pieces of Tofu. And he played with it cautiously, but refused to open his mouth.

October 20, 1999

Tiger's favorite stuff include but not limit to: the telephone (and the telephone cord especially), slippers (the back of them), remote control, the phone book, and a box of empty coke cans. You have to constantly remove things from his hands and when you pick him up, the next thing you'll notice is that he has grabbed something from the table beside you. You put him down on the floor and put toys around him and the next second he turns and crawls away from you. You need to quickly follow him because who knows where he will go and pull himself up. And then as soon as he senses that you've laid one hand on him he is going to let go of both of his hands and take of! You are forced to bend over and use your hands to support him when he walks with great enthusiasm and determination.

October 19, 1999

I have been nursing Tiger every morning before I leave for work. This morning Tiger only took the left side and when I placed him on the right side, he didn't latch on at first. He played with me for a little while, using his hand to touch my face. Then I said to him, "mommy's going to work now, you go back to sleep for a little more." And guess what he did? He latched on my right breast immediately. As if he understood what I said and didn't want me to leave.

Oh, another thing. Well, Tiger is 8 month old now so we are thinking maybe we should give him some more protein. We bought a jar of Gerber stage 2 baby food ham and it has been sitting on the shelf for some times. We decided to try it yesterday at Tiger's dinner. He took one bite and refused to take any more. What's more, he coughed and coughed as if he tried to get the tastes out. I gave him some water and he was fine. I tried it myself. Well, I have to agree that it doesn't taste that good. There goes our hope of starting meat.

October 18, 1999

It was so cold last night. We didn't have our heater on. Tiger fussed quite a few times around 12 o'clock. I finally thought that it must be his diaper. I moved it and it was soaked! It had only been 4 hours and it was the premium type. He must have just peed many times because his body was working to warm himself up. Poor Tiger.

October 17, 1999

This afternoon we went to the Public Library for the first time. Tiger had a great time playing at the children's room. There are so many baby books there. And babies at different ages too. I think it is a good thing for Tiger to be able to play with different children.

October 16, 1999

Tiger was a hit today! This weekend is MO Tiger's homecoming weekend. Saturday is the parade. I dressed Tiger on his Tiger suit when we went to watch the parade. He received so many attentions and praizes. The two trucks of MO athelets cheered to him so wildly.

October 14, 1999

Tiger loves to read books. The one he loves most is called "Tickle Tickle". It is a large board book. He likes to flip the pages and he knows when to flip them.

Grandpa reported that Tiger stood up for about a minute before falling today.

October 13, 1999

Tiger has been showing more and more of his personality recently. He protests if you don't allow him to do certain things he wants to do. He would come to you to engage you if you are not playing with him. He loves to be held by me. Every morning when I leave, he'll lean forward toward me to let me hold him before I can leave. The other day Shang told us proudly: "If Tiger cries, just show him the remote control." Both Fan and I laughed. I'm so glad that Shang is really like a big brother to Tiger.

October 11, 1999

Tiger has been showing a lot of affection toward me recently. Before when I held out my hands and say "Let mommy hold you" he would come to me. But now he would take initiative. For seveal times when daddy and grandpa hold him he leaned toward me and hold on to my neck. When I hold him and daddy or grandpa wants to take him over, he would turn away from them and hide his face on my shoulder. Whever I pick him up, he is so happy he would kick his legs. If he wakes up in the middle of night, when I come in and pick him up, he would immediately go back to sleep contently without even one fuss. I feel so attached to him now. I even feel a little empty when I leave him and go to work.

October 9, 1999

Today we had a party at Martha's house. Both Mark and John brought their little girls. At first Tiger was quiet and seriuos and clammed up. But after a while, he got warmed up and became exited. The two two-year olds liked to play with him. Tiger and I chased the girls around. Mehvis kept yelling: "Baby can't catch me!" Hannah appears to be more serious, always asking: "What is baby doing?" Martha let the girls sit at the stairs and I put Tiger behind them for a picture. Tiger immediately grabbed Mehvis's hair from behind and good little Mehvis sat there without a fuss until Martha finished taken picture and I step in to rescue her.

October 8, 1999

It appears that Tiger has lost all the other words he learned since he is always saying "NaiNai". Well today he finally started to call mama and baba again. I guess he just needs some time to study the new word exclusively. lol.

October 5, 1999

Is that the moon? Tiger went wild last night. He kept talking and squealing and wouldn't go to sleep. It appears that he just learned a new word. Since dinner when he had his cereals, he kept saying "NaiNai NaiNai". Well in Chinese it means grandma. Grandma would be so happy if she was here. And his smiley face is so funny!