6 months post partum

       It's been 6 months since that traumatic, glorious day when my little guy was born.  I wanted to document my journey, so I can look back one day.  My recovery was very fast after having Carter, but I'm still not back to my old self completely.  I'm the new and improved me, with an appetite like Takeru Kobayashi, the competitive hot dog eating champion.  It's all because of nursing, which doesn't explain my eating up until Carter.  I'm burning 500 calories a day, is that per feeding?, I wish!  Seriously, I think I'm always hungry, especially for sweets.  Please pray for my addiction to sweets (I'm eating cookie dough as I type).  Blair's concerned about me.   :)  That being said, I'm still 7 pounds over my pre-pregnancy weight.  My tummy may never look the same, but I'm ok with that.  I read that my hair would fall out more than usual and boy does it ever.  I can't believe how much hair I shed everyday.  I hope it stops soon.  Maybe due to my lack of exercise and addiction to sweets, I still struggle when walking upstairs and hills, like I did when I was pregnant.  I feel so out of shape, huffing and puffing up the stairs.  The one work out I do is picking up Carter all day, he has got to be over 20 pounds now.  He's packing on the pounds now that he's eating solids.  Also, it's a blessing in disguise that my school has 7 floors and I'm on level 6; I'm up and down those stairs all day long.  I also walk to work everyday (and taxi it home).  God helps me out by making some exercise unavoidable.  Other than that, I feel great, full of energy, and getting by just fine with work.  To be honest, I can't wait to go through the whole experience all over again.  Isn't funny how you completely forget 9 months of crazy symptoms, followed by the scariest medical event of your life, and then look forward to going through it all again?  I find that very interesting and I'm glad that you only remember the best details when you look back.   

6 months old

   
    Precious Carter is now 6 months old!  What a difference each month makes.  I went to visit a friend's newborn baby yesterday and I couldn't believe how much bigger Carter looked compared to him.  Carter looks so much sturdier these days.  He can sit up on his own now, which gives us a little more versatility with what toys he can use and it's easier to feed him.  Little by little we've worked up to eating 3 solid meals a day.  I kinda cheated and gave him blended foods earlier than suggested.  Well that didn't matter to Carter, he'll eat whatever I offer, with one exception.  After 5 bites of a spinach and apple mix, he tightened his lips, turned red, and started grunting loudly.  I took that as a sign that he was done.  Of course, I would not waste all that spinach baby food I bought, so we mixed it with some other flavors and then he woofed it down.  (TMI alert) With all these new foods, Carter's diapers have become absolutely disgusting.  They barely even smelled before.  That is one good thing about being at work, I miss some of the diaper changing.  It's like russian roulette, who will get the nasty diaper.  I'm sorry to share such horrible details with you.
     Children must instinctively know if something is expensive, because Carter lunges for cell phones, computers, remotes, and cameras.  He is passed the out of sight, out of mind phase.  He will continue looking around and throwing a fit, even after you take the object away.  He also shows a big interest in our food and drinks now.  We have to push everything at least 2 feet away from him.  This week, he pulled an electrical cord until our lamp fell off the bookshelf and broke.  Whoops!  We're so used to him being immobile.
    Carter can only scoot or shimmy if he's on a cushy surface.  On the tile floor, he can't manage to scoot.  He's yet to get up on his hands and knees.  I'm not overly anxious for him to start crawling.  I like being able to take my eyes off of him for a few minutes. 
    On September 9th, life got much better because our helper, Mila started.  She worked for another family at my school for 16 years.  She is such a God send.  Carter loves her and I feel so comfortable leaving him with her each day.  Asia is thrilled to death to have someone give her some more attention.  Everyday she brings Carter to school at lunch time, so I can feed him.  Hallelujah, no more pumping! 

First Taste of Veggies

Asia is licking the butternut squash!

Now we're talking, real food!

Why is that dog so interested in my food?

Asia's Tiniest Bama Fan

Roll Tide from HK

Is this bus headed for Tuscaloosa?

Drinking from a Sippy Cup

   Carter knows how to use a sippy cup now, and by use, I mean he can hold it and chew on it like it's a paci.  After 10 minutes of slurping on it, there was still the same amount of water in it, as when he started.  The good news is that it doesn't leak.

Funny face

   Little Carter is starting to smile and laugh all the time now.  He finds the most random things funny.  Like the word "bonk" or the word "go."  He will get really tickled and become delirious, especially if he's tired.  I love wrestling with him, of course very gently.  He enjoys it when I flip him around and throw him in the air.

Work in Progress

Tiny kitchen

bathroom

    

The living room (need a rug, big time!)

living room

office

master bedroom

Carter's room (curtains are temporary)

Carter's room

We're on the middle floor

 

 

6 Year Anniversary

    Usually, Blair and I don't make a big deal out of our anniversaries, but this year we decided we should try to make them more special.  All week, Blair had been dropping hints that he was planning something.  He kept saying, "Don't worry, I've got it all figured out."  He's really good at putting fun plans together and surprising me.  So Saturday morning, he tells me the first leg of our anniversary starts at 8:30 a.m. and that there is surprise for me in the fridge.  The surprise was a Dr. Pepper, because they aren't easy to find in HK.  Then he told me to open my gift, which was khaki shorts from Zara.  At 8:30 am, we hopped on the bus to Shatin, but I had no idea what we're going to do there.  Blair leads me to the Royal Park Hotel for a breakfast buffet.  Nice!  I think basically I just ate a whole pig, my plate was full of bacon.  They had a pancake station with toppings including all kinds of yummy syrups. I made some cool designs on my plate and came back to the table with a challenge for Blair. "See if you can make a fancier design than I did." So Blair comes back with a plate that memorialized our anniversary with "6 yrs" written in syrup! How romantic... Afterwards, I felt entirely too full (sick) and didn't get hungry until like 10 hours later.

     We went back home until our friends Brad and Emily showed up to babysit Carter.  How sweet of them!  This was our first date without Carter.  As we left, I felt very light without a stroller, baby, and a diaper bag.  Blair took me to Central and we had drinks and cheese on the roof of the IFC building.  We then left to go to Soho in the Midlevels.  We ate at the ZGrill, but I was not hungry at all.  In fact, I felt a bit sick.  Blair ordered the Surf-n-Turf and I just ate some of his.  At 9:30 pm, my eyes started closing and my body was shutting down.  Blair begged me to wake up, but after waking up at 7 am everyday, I'm just not used to staying up past 10 pm.  As all the westerners filled the streets of Soho to begin their night, Blair and I started our long journey back to the countryside.  We live over an hour from HK island and we often wonder if it's worth the trek to get there.  Brad and Emily said Carter was a perfect, little angel.  No crying fits or diaper explosions.  He smiled, laughed, and slept right on cue.  Thank God for 6 years of marriage and for this new stage in our lives.  Even though, I know it's important to get out and have a life, the truth is, I'd prefer to be home with my family out here in the village.  Thank you Blair for being so thoughtful and romantic!  You are such a sweetheart.

5 months old

    Carter is definitely not a little guy anymore; he's 5 months old.  When I pick him up, he feels pretty heavy.  He's starting to look like a little boy, instead of tiny baby.  It's bittersweet, but he's so cute now.  We're figuring out his sense of humor, so he's starting to laugh a lot more often.  He likes you to tickle or blow zerberts on his belly, he likes to be turned upside down or thrown in the air, and he'll laugh if you make exaggerated faces or use funny voices.  This month has been truly wonderful.  Carter learned to roll over both ways, eat rice cereal, use a sippy cup, sleep without being swaddled, and pull his feet up and grab his toes.  His newest trick is to flap his arms when he's excited.  He does it so hard that he hits himself in the belly.  Now that he isn't swaddled anymore, it's fun to see him flap his arms when you get him up in the morning.  Every morning at 6:45 a.m., I'll hear the most hilarious sounds coming from his crib.  He doesn't start crying, he just talks to himself for awhile.  His sounds are so sweet, even when he squeals as loud as he can on the train, it's still so cute and funny.  I love how his squeals go from low to high and loud to quiet.  Yesterday a lady working in the mall told me, "if my little boy looked just like him, I would be so happy."  That was very nice, but since she in Chinese, I strongly doubt her baby would have blond hair and blue eyes.  You never know.
   In the states, I got an Ergo baby carrier and I love it!  Granted it's hotter than all get out, but it's so comfortable.  You get to hold your baby in a hug-like position in front of you.  Carter seems to really like it.  The only downside is when, like yesterday, your baby spits up all over you while he's in the carrier. Blair looks great wearing it, too :). 

Eating like a big boy

    Carter had his first taste of real food this weekend.  Actually, I don't know if I would call rice cereal real food.  It's more like prison slop.  I was going to wait until he was 6 months old, but curiosity got the best of me.  We stripped off Carter's clothes and put him in his bathtub because we anticipated a huge mess.  I expected him to spit it all out.  Well based on the video, it looks like he's ready to start eating.  He ate every last bit.  I hope he likes veggies more than mommy does.  We'll try those when he turns 6 months.  In the 2nd video, we just wanted to see if Carter could hold his own bottle.