PoPo's Visit

My mom came on 1/16, which was about a week before my due date, but then Mathis decided to come on 1/15. Hansel picked her up from the airport. Baby Mathis and I didn't get to see her until the next day after we left the hospital. My mom stayed for a month, which Hansel and I were very thankful for.

While she was here, she cooked (yum!), shopped for groceries (we always had a lot of fruit in the house), helped watch the kids, drove them to school, and played mahjong with her friends. I did not eat a single frozen meal while my mom was here, but I didn't stick to my vegetarian diet either (although she cooked with less meat).

She also helped write a want ad for us for the Chinese newspaper for someone to help me in the mornings. My mom was our call screener. We got at least a dozen calls a day. A lot more than over 3 years ago when we looked for a Chinese nanny while I was working part-time. The volume of calls was definitely a sign of the times.

A couple of days into our ad, Hansel and I decided we didn't need the help. Since Mathis is just a newborn, I figured my mornings weren't going to be that different from the way they were before he was born. So far it's been working out (knock on wood).

It's been a week and a half since my mom went back to Taiwan. We're surviving, but I miss her dearly. It's so comforting to have your mom with you.

Squeezing Daddy's Head

Hansel was about to delete this photo from the camera, which was taken 1/17. I quickly stopped him and said that I wanted to keep it because it look like Beck was trying to do the camera trick of squeezing Hansel's head with his fingers. In reality, Beck just isn't very good at keeping his fingers out of the way of the lens.

A Week in the Life of Beck and Maile

2/5 Beck and Maile love playing with my phone. Mostly, because it has a couple of videos on it set to music that Hansel recorded. One video and song is based on the Jack Johnson song Remember but Hansel changed the words to fit his life. And the other video is set to a song Hansel wrote after Maile was born.

I took this picture after Beck started playing the Remember video on my phone, which he's holding. He gave Maile the microphone and Hansel the guitar.
2/8 Often times we put Mathis in his car seat when he's napping so we can take him from room to room. When we're in the kitchen eating, we place him near Hansel so he can rock his seat if he starts to wake and get upset. Below is a photo of Beck rocking Mathis.
2/11 I had given Beck and Maile cheese and crackers for a snack. My mom came up to Beck to give him a hug, but he thought she was trying to take his snack. In the photo, he's protecting the rest of his snack on his plate.
2/11 Maile made the marble thing herself.

Random Photos of Mathis

I took the below photo with my phone. Nice lighting, huh?

Mathis often ends up sleeping like this in his swing or rocker -- looking upward to his left.

2/12: This is a photo I took while I had Mathis on my lap.

2/14: Beck took this photo. I had to make Beck step back a bit because he kept trying to take a picture from like two inches away from Mathis' face.

Maile took this photo.

This is Mathis in the kids' chair.

Maile loves holding Mathis. It looks like he's trying to talk to her.

Hands Free

This is not a post about the virtues of Bluetooth, rather it's about letting Mathis be swaddle free. For the first couple of weeks of Mathis' life he was pretty much always swaddled. The only times he wasn't were during the first half of his feedings and when changing his diapers. Now that he's starting to be awake more, I'm letting him out of his swaddle more. My mom thinks he loves it. I think his hands confuse him.

Hand-Me-Down Arts and Crafts

So a little while back Hansel's aunt gave us a bunch of toys and crafts that she found while cleaning out her house. One of the crafts has beads that you place together on a tray to form a design or picture. You then iron the beads so they can fuse together.

I've only let Maile play with this craft because I figured with Beck all the beads would end up on the floor. However, the other day Beck got in on the action and to my surprise he was carefully and methodically creating a pattern using only blue beads. In the end, he said he made a boat.

Maile's first piano lessons

In this crappy economy, what better way to save money than to teach Maile piano by myself! I gave Maile her first lesson yesterday, and she already knows how to play Mary had a Little Lamb, how cool is that! She knows where middle C is, and started playing Old MacDonald today. The lessons are only 5-10 minutes long, but so far she really likes them! Beck always wants to get in on the action too, so far he knows middle C!

Hm, what else can I teach these guys at home to save money...
(hansel)

Ed's Visit

My brother was recently here for a visit. It happened that his lunar new year break coincided with Mathis' due date. He came 1/22 and left a little after midnight on 2/1. He fortunately made it home in time to watch the Super Bowl.

Maile did not have to warm up to Ed this time. She was receptive from the get go. The kids had a ton of fun with Ed, and he had fun with them. Although, I don't think they helped his jetlag. Rather, they just added to his exhaustion.