Good News

"Starting this week, citizenship forms for children of American parents born outside of the U.S. and passport applications will now feature gender neutral areas making it easier for gay and lesbian parents to obtain passports for their children.

The change, which began Monday, will use the title of "parent" instead of "mother" and "father." The new language will also show up on Consular Report of Birth Abroad forms, an official record confirming that a child born overseas to an American parent can become a citizenship at birth. "These improvements are being made to provide a gender neutral description of a child’s parents and in recognition of different types of families," the department said in a December statement."

From The Advocate

A Glimpse of the Goofiness

I have a feeling no one will ever know better than Noah how goofy I am. In fact, I was thinking earlier that when he can better understand what I'm saying to him throughout the day, I'm going to have to really improve the quality of my remarks!

Anyway. Ching and I have never been big fans of Oprah, but we're not haters either. I guess we feel our spirits are just fine without her show. But, now that there's a behind the scenes of season 25 show on her new network, we're so watching it! This has led to us, on occasion, talking in "Oprah speak" - you know, the way she says things like "You're GOING to AUUSTRRAALIIAAA!!"

Now I've found myself using it with Noah, as in: "It's Time to CHANGE your DIIAAPPERRRR!!"

Our growing boy

This picture does not even began to depict Noah Maxx's newfound joy at eating solid food! Over the weekend, we've made some applesauce, and made sweet potato mush for him to try out. We'd figured that we'll let him try the sweet potato mush first and then follow up with apple sauce after a few days. We also went to the store and got him two butternut squashes for his next food adventure after he tries the applesauce. The grocery shopping cart now has a distinct space for Noah Maxx's food!

We're pretty convinced that Noah Maxx is going through some kind of growth spurt right now. In the last 3-4 days, he felt heavier, and wasn't sleeping as much during the day since he kept waking up in hunger. It was apparent that formulas are no longer enough to keep him full. The GF took out a tape measure to measure him and his height was at 27 inches, and as we referenced his height from a month ago when he had his check up, he was at 24 inches....about a 3 inches growth over a month. His weight is now at 18 lbs., also a 3 lbs. growth from a month ago. We swear that most of these height/weight gains had happened in the last 3-4 days!

How did he respond to the sweet potato mush? He loved it! Ate a whole 2 oz. cup with gusto while we were having a late lunch with friends at a restaurant (His favorite place.) ! A bit later in the afternoon we mixed some oat cereal with half a banana and he inhaled almost the whole thing too! We had to take the cup away because he was starting to get sleepy and we were also afraid that his little stomach is going to explode or something!

I think his great grandma would have been so happy and proud of Noah Maxx, growing and loving his food! We're really happy too that so far he has shown a liking to solid food, but somehow we could not help it but to wonder about what if he is like one of these kids who are already 6 feet tall when he's 12? What if I have to get another job because grocery bills will soon equal mortgage payments? For those of you who don't really know, I EAT too, and probably eat more than I should be :-)

As the new year begins, we're just so happy to be parents to such a cute and pleasant baby boy! It really doesn't matter how much he'll eat, as long as he's happy and healthy!

Cute!

5 Months

I know it sounds crazy, but this week in particular he seems to be little boy and not a baby boy. Maybe it's because he's so long and skinny. Maybe it's that he's started this little protest noise that's part moan, part growl. Baby protests are kinda funny, actually. I mean, really, what does he have to protest about?

Now that we're feeding him bananas and avocados and not that rice cereal he seems to think comes straight from satan, he's finally happy to be eating. The face he made over the rice cereal was a riot. And the "mmmmmm"s he says when eating bananas is adorable. Yesterday I made some oat cereal and that went over a little better. This morning I just mixed it in with his banana and he scarfed it all down. This weekend we'll make some applesauce and pear or squash purees. Fun.

We call the kitchen "The Magic Room" because he gets all happy and wide eyed when he's in there. He's memorized watching us stir things on the stove. Last night we were eating dinner and just had him in his lounge chair. That would not do. We had to mash him up some banana so he could eat with us. I know this is a good thing, that he wants to eat dinner when we do. It'll just be easier when he can sit up and be in a high chair. For now he's on one of our laps to eat. Fortunately, he's not messy, yet.

He seems to be a pretty goofy boy. I'm convinced he's taking inventory of everything, particularly on my desk, for future use/destruction. He is good at entertaining himself, whether in his chair with toys, or on the floor on his back or tummy, but mostly in his bouncy chair. As we've said for months, he's so ready to be in motion!

The last few days, it seems he's changed his nap patterns. There are shorter ones with a much longer one in the middle of the day. It's a good change. We're hoping he keeps staying awake in the evenings a little more for dinner/bath times.

I can't believe it's only been five months. He's a fun, happy, sweet boy who loves to go out to eat and hang out with people. I pray he stays that way!!

New Type of Onsie

Ok, I totally understand why baby straight jackets aren't allowed. But, for at least a month now, I've really, really wanted a onsie that comes with little velcro handcuffs at the waist like prisoner jumpers have real handcuffs. You know, for those times his poor head is all itchy and he can't stop scratching it. Or when he's trying to help us feed him solids.

I'm just sayin.

Christmas Pics

This is our happy little elf! We went over to our friends' for brunch and he had so much fun watching everyone and interacting with them. We had to drag him away for his nap time. It looks like he'll be like me, as long as there's anything else going on he's not going to sleep. Two minutes after we started driving home, he was out like a light.


We went to Peking Gourmet Inn for some really good duck last night. Little Noah had an absolute blast. He was so happy and excited. He couldn't have the duck, but he wanted so badly to be eating on something, so we gave him a cucumber stick to gnaw on. He loved it. We've never known a baby to be so happy to go out to eat. From pretty much day one he's loved restaurants, I guess it's the nice aromas and all the people watching!