Wiggly Piglet’s Playpen

Mckayla now knows to clap her hands on command. She started out with clapping them while holding her soft cloth blocks. Then, to one hand holding the block and clapping with the other bare hand. And finally to clapping with two hands. She’ll clap when we tell her – “pai pai so” (clap hands in Chinese). Her appettite hasn’t been great since teeth number 7 and 8 are coming out on the bottom. We’ve been cheering her on whenever she finishes her food, either solids or milk, and telling her she’s a champion while we clap our hands. Now when she finishes her food and we tell her she’s the champion, she proudly clap her hands with a big smile on her face.

Today was my last day of pumping. I haven’t been making much milk for the last month or so and it really wasn’t worth the time that I put for the few ounces of milk that was coming out. I’ve been told that it takes a few days or even weeks to slow down the pumping to avoid painful gorging. But for me, it was simply cutting back to two pumpings yesterday, then to one pumping today. And so far, no discomfort at all. That’s how little I was making. I’m kind of sad because I didn’t make it to 10/11 that I originally planned but relieved at the same time. Was not a big fan of breastfeeding and pumping’s painful sometimes. Mckayla will have her last bottle of breastmilk tomorrow morning for breakfast on her parents’ 4th wedding anniversary. We’ve depleted the frozen supply the last few days too. 

Ted asked me yesterday while we were out walking after dinner. Now I have all this time freed up from pumping, at least one hour per day (3-4 pumping sessions and washing accessories), what am I going to do with my time. Am I going to make use of my yearly donation to 24 Hour Fitness? My answer to him, I will go one of these days, but for now, just spending more time with Mckayla & MeiMei and maybe sleeping in for another 15-20 minutes in the morning -that’s only if Mckayla allows me to do so.

Jackie came over to join us for dinner today. She arrived the same time as Ted and Nanny was still around. Mckayla was happy to see Ted but was jumping with joy when she saw Jackie. Nanny said, “She’s so happy to see Auntie. She doesn’t even get this excited when Mommy comes home.”

Last weekend, Jackie and I took Mckayla shopping at the mall. I was holding Mckayla while waiting in line for Jackie to pay. She kept reaching her arms out for Jackie to hold her while we were waiting. By the time we got to the cashier, Mckayla’s body was half out of my arm and grabbing Jackie’s shirt. Cashier looked at us and asked, “Who’s the Mom?”.

Mckayla finally said it…  She finally said “MaMa” after all these weeks of “teaching” her. It’s more like “mmmmummmum”, but close enough for me! It’s so cute when she says it. She purses her lips and tries so hard to make the “mm” sound. Now, I just need to help her make the connection to actually call me “MaMa”.

Mckayla easily gets distracted by MeiMei when we’re eating dinner at home. MeiMei’s always begging by our feet and tapping my legs when we’re eating. And Mckayla sees MeiMei by our seats, would stretch out her arms and try to reach and pet MeiMei. Last few days, we noticed Mckayala would reach out to MeiMei with food in her hands. Not sure if she’s intentionally passing the food to MeiMei or not. She usually reaches down but doesn’t open up her palms. Because MeiMei can smell the food in her palm, she licks Mckayla’s hands and that makes Mckayla giggle.

This afternoon, I gave Mckayla a piece of french baguette to gnaw on while I wash dishes from her late lunch. I didn’t pay too much attention to MeiMei because she was sleeping under the dinner table. Then I heard Ted asking, “did you gave Mckayla and MeiMei bread?”. When I looked, both Mckayla and MeiMei were eating the bread. Apparently, Mckayla dropped her bread on the ground while she was busy “reading” her books. And when there’s food on the ground, MeiMei claims every piece of it. And when Mckayla saw MeiMei picking up her bread, she pulled it away from MeiMei. So we’re pretty sure the piece Mckayla reclaimed was once in MeiMei’s mouth. Yuck!

Mckayla can no longer sit still. For almost every moment she’s awake, she’s on the move. Crawling to MeiMei’s bowl to dip her hands in the water, followed me to the kitchen and slap her hands on the garbage can, and pulling herself up to reach the books and/or toys that I just put away. We’ve pushed the ottoman against the couch to give her more space on the floor and the couch. Whenever she’s on the floor, she wants to get on the couch. But once she gets on the couch, she wants to go down to the floor. After watching her almost fell face down to the ground from the couch several times, we started teaching to get down butt first. After a few days of training, Mckayla can almost safely get herself to the ground from the couch now.

After forgetting to bring Mckayla’s identification for the last plane trip and with the idea from one of the TSA inspection lady, we decided to get Mckayla her own California State ID. It’s much more convenient to carry the ID card than bringing along her passport and/or birth certificfate. I can keep it in my wallet with my own driver’s license. I made an appointment with DMV online but the next available appointment is not until September. Since I had the morning free today until termite inspection at my parents’ house this afternoon, I took Mckayla to DMV in the morning. The line was almost out the door when we got there but it moved pretty fast. Even with the computer problem that shut down everything for about 10-15 minutes, we still managed to finish the entire process in 1.5 hour. There were some technical difficulties with her photo – I had to lift her up high to avoid getting myself in the picture and she was very sleep because it was almost her nap time. Her last identification photo was taken at the Registrar’s Office in San Jose for the passport. She was probably 2-3 weeks old at the time and slept through the entire process. The picture could have been any baby with dark hair. Now I can’t wait to get her ID and see how the picture turned out.

When I got home from work yesterday, Nanny told me Mckayla was very upset yesterday. Mckayla was playing with the garbage can in the kitchen, so she picked her up and told her, “No, it’s not a toy!”. And apparently, Mckayla understood what she said and was not too happy about it. She started “hitting” the Nanny with her hands. And when the Nanny dodged away from her, Mckayla got even more upset and started hitting herself. We’ve never seen her do anything like that before and I was a concerned about her behavior. And she was not a happy child the rest of the evening. She ate her dinner but made a big mess on the table and floor by swinging her arms while I was feeding  her and putting her fingers in her mouth while it was full with food.  She continued to whine and complain after dinner, but eventually calmed down after Ted gave her a frozen teether. I tried to feel her gum to see if any new teeth’s coming out but she refused to let my fingers in her mouth and even refused to brush her teeth last night before going to bed. After she went to bed, we were both relieved but the peaceful night was quickly interrupted as Mckayla woke up almost every 2 hours until this morning. We’re hoping that her erratic behavior is caused by her teething discomfort and she would resume her sweet little girl behavior soon. And she’s not leaving a bad impression for the new Nanny.

Oh, and the other girl, she pooped in three different spots in the office yesterday afternoon according to the Nanny (it was already cleaned up by the time I got home). And this morning, I found another pile in the bathroom. MeiMei, what’s up with that?

Mckayla has learned to wave hi and bye. It’s not really a wave, but more like opening up her palms and closing them to say bye and flapping her hands up and down to say hi. It’s so cute when she does it because her hands are still so tiny. It’s the last “tricks” that her previous Nanny has been teaching her. And we put them to good use this weekend at Debbie/Cary’s baby shower, showing them off to our friends.

We had a fun weekend hanging out with friends - eat and laugh the whole weekend. This will be our last get together before “CJ” (aka “Ding Dong”) arrives. We used to be able to cram into the big suburban but that’s not going to happen anymore as our families continue to expand. Can’t to meet “CJ” in a month or so!

I can’t explain this, but this is a very particular term in Taiwan and doesn’t seem to have an equivalent term in English. The closest definition that I can come up with – to act/speak/cuddle in a soft and sweet manner. Jackie and I have been teaching Mckayla to 撒嬌 or actually in Taiwanese (it sounds like “sainei”). Maybe it’ll make more sense if you watch this video.