Today, on September 3 2010…

we became homeowners!

Despite some bumps with our financing along the way, everything worked out smoothly in the end. It feels surreal, after THREE years of searching in the hot summer heat or in the icy slippery snow, we have finally reached the end…and a new beginning.

Although our savings account is drained, I am so content with our new place. It is everything I’d ever dreamed to find in a home, even a lofty one of wanting a mud room. Although we now have the giant responsibility and commitment of a mortgage, I am so glad we found our home.

I think we are really going to flourish there.

The big bad move is this weekend. If all goes well, I will be back online on Saturday night.

I promise to have pictures for show and tell. :)

[+/-] Extra Sugar!

[+/-] Enough Sugar!

Anna @ 5.5 months

Anna is 5.5 months old and at the pre-crawling stage.

She gets up on her hands and knees, wriggles back and forth, stretches and arches, squirms, rolls, and plops…and after a few minutes, she’s moved to the other side of the mat! It’s not graceful and it’s not fast, but she’s a baby on the move!


She is still a champ at sleeping through the night. Not much to comment there, except that she sleeps on her side like a little person and it always makes me chuckle.

I haven’t been very good at giving her solids. With going back to work and moving, I am holding off and waiting until 6 months before giving her solids regularly. However, so far, she has tasted mushy brown rice, mango, peach, green squash, banana, and plum. Mango and plum are by far her favorites - she gets so excited for them, reaching forward and flapping her arms. Eating solids is just for fun, though, she’s still getting 160-170cc bottles 5 times a day.

It’s pretty hard to say what kind of personality Anna has, but she seems to be a mix of easy-going and strong-willed. If she’s full and well-rested, she’s can be on her tummy for a long stretch of time with just a few toys and play by herself. On another hand, if she’s not happy about something, she will SCREAM SO LOUD for attention.

Either way, she smiles easily and makes us laugh constantly. I love squeezing her.

I said it before and I will say it again, she’s one cute and cuddly little gal, and I feel very, very blessed.

[+/-] Extra Sugar!

[+/-] Enough Sugar!

Road Tripping to W'Burg and Y'Town

Well, it wasn’t a glamorous summer vacation, but our little family got some quality time together before the daily grind started. We went to Williamsburg and Yorktown this past weekend.

The weather cooperated – mild with cool summer breezes. We had a fun time dipping our toes in the Chesapeake Bay (Baby A didn’t like it when water got too deep), walking the streets of Colonial Williamsburg, eating icy treats, and shopping at the outlet. And we got some great pictures.

Traveling with a baby was anything but relaxing, though. Everything we did was according to Anna’s schedule. Dinner never happened on Saturday night because I didn’t want to risk going to a restaurant so close to Anna’s bedtime. Thankfully, we brought some Vietnamese sandwiches from home with us. I also wanted to take Anna to the pool, but by the time she woke up from her nap, it was time to check-out. So basically, not all plans worked out, but we just kind of roll with the punches.

At one point during the trip, we spent a while on the Colonial Parkway looking for a certain stop…while Anna was peacefully sleeping in the car seat. Hubs was frustrated and said, “What a waste of gas.” To which I quickly responded, “It’s not a waste of gas, Anna is sleeping. We can drive like this for the next hour for all I care.” Ha. I definitely see traveling differently now. Before I was all about checking things off the tourist guide, now it’s all about spending time together and a happy baby.

Anna experienced many firsts, including first time sleeping away from home. She did wonderfully! Yes, there were some crazy moments, but nothing that could’ve been avoided even if we were at home.

Ultimately, although the trip was tiring, hubs and I got what we wanted – to get away. No packing. No Internet. No distractions. Whenever Baby A slept, we just sat on the couch together and talked. We agreed that once in a while, a weekend like this is very necessary.



More images from the trip here.

[+/-] Extra Sugar!

[+/-] Enough Sugar!

24 weeks & working mama

Just a short note here to say that I went back to work today. Those twenty-four weeks sure were long but they flew right by me. They weren’t always sunshine and lollipops, but they were always fulfilling...but those weeks are behind me now.

I’m not going to lie and say returning to work was easy. Anna had just woke up right before I was one foot out of the door. I picked her up from the crib, hugged her tight, and handed her to hubs. Made me a bit sad that I was leaving her for the day…but definitely comforting knowing that she was in the loving and capable hands of her Grandma.

So I am officially a working mom, for better or for worse. I am just thankful that there are plenty of snuggles from every member of the household when I return home. It makes the nine hours away fade into the distance quite easily.


Photo: For our last summer hurrah, we took a little road trip this past weekend. More details to follow, but here is a picture of Anna, at 24 weeks, wearing her Papa out.

[+/-] Extra Sugar!

[+/-] Enough Sugar!

Seriously, Just Skip This Post.

*WARNING* What you are about to read is extremely boring and may put you to sleep. Read at your own risk.

Roughly around Anna's fourth month of life, I found out that girl doesn't care for breast milk that have been frozen.

Unfortunately, by then, I had at least 800 oz of breast milk in the freezer.

To put that into context, Anna eats about 26 oz a day so my stash could've fed her for one entire month. That's one month that I could've not pumped...because pumping is annoying and time consuming.

So all the milk went down the drain, along with some tears, anger, and frustration.

Since I was still producing more milk than Anna's consumption, I turned to Dr. Google for some answers and found the following:

Scalding milk is the recommended solution for excessive lipase. It is the safest way to reduce the lipase, which makes the milk taste unpleasant. Lipase is the enzyme that breaks down fat in the milk. If the mother finds after freezeing and thawing that her milk has a rancid smell, she can prevent this from occurring in the future by heating her expressed milk to a scald (bubbling around the edges but not boiling) right after collecting it, and then quickly cooling and freezing it. Scalding inactivates the lipase. --Source

I followed the instructions and what do you know?!

Anna happily drinks any breast milk now, fresh or frozen.

Too bad I didn't know about this sooner. Now that little Miss Piggy is eating almost as much as I am producing, my stash isn't building up nearly as fast. We may just have to give her formula when we go on vacation...which I know isn't the end of the world...

Oh well...lesson learned for kid number two.

But I hope this information will help someone out there!

[+/-] Extra Sugar!

[+/-] Enough Sugar!

What I Will Miss When I Return to Work #542

The giant smile that the happy baby gives me after her naps.

She will be fully awake and flirting with the ceiling, not making a sound, but the second she sees me she just gives me a HUGE grin. OK, so you can't actually see the smile with her face half covered in blankets, but trust me, it's there.

And it's super adorable.

And I always just scoop her right up in my arms and give her a HUGE hug in return.

[+/-] Extra Sugar!

[+/-] Enough Sugar!

23 weeks & a big shopping spree

This weekend was all about shopping for furnitures!

It was an epic trip and it all happened like this:

Because we didn't care to live in an empty box, we wanted to buy at least some furnitures for the family & living room and have them delivered on the day we move in. So over the last few weeks, we looked online and found two collections we liked at The Room Store. We went to the store this weekend and saw them in person. Comfy, yes. Nice-looking, yes. Good price, yes. We will take both!

...but not before trying our luck in asking for some kind of discount.

The salesperson surprised us with a friends & family discount of 20%!

So with the discount, we thought: Hey, as long as we are already paying for delivery (a flat fee after spending more than $1000), we might as well get a bedroom set + mattress and a sectional sofa for the basement.

And we did. We had never been so decisive.

Well, we are a few grand poorer, but at least we will have places to sit at the new place.

Here is Anna, at 23 weeks, modeling (+ tripoding) on one of the couches we got.



And because I am all about having a balance, I took home this free chair I spotted in the neighborhood. I am going to refinish it - no idea how, but will learn. :)

[+/-] Extra Sugar!

[+/-] Enough Sugar!

I am very late in posting this,

but better late than never.

This picture of Pargo & Pesto waiting for the arrival of their baby sister and reading this particular blog post is so cute. I really, really like it.


Thanks Emilie - this is one of my most fav pictures in the entire universe.

[+/-] Extra Sugar!

[+/-] Enough Sugar!

My Schedule as a SAHM (w/ a 5 month old)

My days as a SAHM is winding down and I thought I would do a post on my daily schedule to help me remember this tiring, yet happy, time. This schedule is for a very typical Monday, when my husband is at work (on other days he may work from home) and I am home alone with my baby.

5:30am - Wake up to Anna's coos. Retrieve her from the crib and give her morning bottle.

5:45am - Anna falls back to sleep. Put her in the crib.

5:50am - I pump, eat breakfast, and get myself ready for the day. Sometimes I take the boys + trash out if hubs hasn't done it. I may go back to sleep.

7:30am - Husband leaves for work.

8:40am - Anna wakes up. I change her and wipe her face. We play, activities include: floor time, read books, chit-chat, and we may go for a walk.

9:45am - I feed Anna. She's still strictly on Mama's milk diet.

10:00am - We play some more.

10:55am - Anna goes down for a nap in her crib.

I wish I could say that after she goes to sleep, I have hours of doing absolutely nothing.

But I don't.

I hurry to eat lunch, pump & wash bottles, tidy up the place, do laundry, take the boys out, refill their food/water bowls, brush Pargo, and many other things. But I always manage to squeeze in some Internet & blogging time.

12:30pm - Anna wakes up. I change her and play silly games to make her laugh.

1:15pm - I feed her. We play, activities include: floor time with Sesame Street on the background, watch an episode of Baby Einstein, read books, and chit-chat. Or we may leave the house for a bit (to the mall, library, grandparents', etc). Today we went to a Hallmark store and Starbucks.

2:30pm - Anna goes down for a nap in her crib.

I grab a quick snack, take the boys out, tidy up the place, prep for dinner, and do many other things. Then I sit down in front of my computer and surf the web. I may look for deals, research baby products, check my Google Reader, and write a blog post.

4:15pm - Anna wakes up. I change and feed her. Husband gets home.

After waking up from her last nap at 4:15pm, Anna is up until bedtime. We do a variety of things during this time:
- Cook & eat dinner
- Play with Anna as a family
- Take the boys out
- Go for a walk
- Get mail
- Anna gets a bath (every other night)
- Watch TV
- & a million of other things

7:00 - 7:30pm - Start bedtime routine: books, songs, and feed. If we are lucky she falls right to sleep for the night after bottle.

7:40pm - I pump and wash bottles.

8:10pm - Husband and I may hang out. Or he may watch a movie and I do more stuff on the computer.

9:15 - 10pm - I crash into bed.

Anna sleeps through the night, but may wake up once or twice. Usually she can go back to sleep on her own. If not, I get up and move her to a different position and she goes back to dreamland. No middle of the night feedings!

*On days when Anna wakes up at 6:30am, everything gets pushed back an hour and she goes to bed at 8:00 - 8:30pm. I am trying to get her consistently on the 5:30am wake-up time schedule so when I go back to work, I can see her in the morning before I leave.

*I wish we followed this schedule by the minute - all the time - but we don't. However, this is our typical schedule pattern.

*On days when husband doesn't need to go into the office, he helps out with feeding, diaper change, and playtime throughout the day. It's nice to have him home.

[+/-] Extra Sugar!

[+/-] Enough Sugar!

Solids: Rice Cereal Edition

For the last few weeks, my 5 month old baby has been taking long gazes at our food and smacking her lips. I figured it was a sign that she was ready to eat more than just breast milk.

Now, I have mentioned before that hubs likes to give her a taste of whatever he's eating...and he has been doing that since she was about 3 months old.

But it's time to officially start her on solid food!

Today on the menu was brown rice mush mixed with breast milk. We loosely followed the recipes found here.

Miss Anna herself actually helped in making her own food. Look at that face of concentration while she stirred.


After a quick outfit change, it was time to eat.

Her face said it all. She did not like the plain rice and spat it out.

So hubs decided to puree a peach to give it more flavor. Haha, but by then she was so disgusted with the rice cereal that the meal ended with her in tears.

Suffice to say, her first solids did not go well.

Ah, I am not too upset about it. Truthfully, I am not ready for her to eat grown-up food yet. Or deal with grown-up poop.

We will wait another week and try again, but may skip the whole rice cereal stage and move right to vegetable and fruit purees. We will see. Looking forward to having our own little baby test kitchen! Having a baby is so fun.

[+/-] Extra Sugar!

[+/-] Enough Sugar!