8/30/23
We decided to put Baobao in daycare. It's a Mother's Day Put program at the Day school at Westbury Methodist. It's 9-1p Tuesday to Thursday, but there is extended care before (7:30a) and after (to 6p), so works for our schedule. We are a little apprehensive because he's still so small, especially for his school year.
He can put a 10 piece puzzle and the ABC puzzle together. He likes to try to sing songs like baba black sheep, ABC, happy birthday, Bingo, twinkle twinkle little star. Very cute when he tries to sing or talks to himself! He will try to sing and even tell AB to shhhh if AB tries to sing the same song too. He likes hearing stories from the curious George book.
He's definitely in his terrible twos stage. Everything needs to be a particular way and done a certain way. He wants to walk himself everywhere or climb up himself. He doesn't want to be carried places. He wants to walk upstairs himself to go read. He will get fixated on certain pages of stories or certain picture in the book like "dudu" (a girls belly button), "poopoo" in the grandparent book when I joked there the frog had poop on it's butt. Also happy birthday sign on the find and seek book.
His favorite song is Taylor Swift - Cruel Summer.
9/1/23
Beach trip #2 at Surfside! Baobao once again was the baby that enjoyed the beach the most. He would stay in the water and on the beach the whole day of he could. He tried to lie down and the waves would splash on his face.
9/14/23
Baobao started school! Well, last week was supposed to be first day, but got sent home after 15min because he had "pink eye" maybe...he did NOT have pink eye. Prob more like a stye. I would know. But the nurse didn't believe me. Sighs...required a doctor's note. So AB ended up working from home with Baobao.
This week, when we asked him if he it was fun, he would say "Fun!" He would say some weird things though, like: "Baobao pushed ah yi, ta fall down, ta shen qi" (Baobao pushed auntie, she fell down, she angry). Not sure if this really happened... and then today he would very surprisingly and frequently point out this elephant stamp on his arm. When asked who did it, he would say ah Yi, but then later said himself. He seems to love school. He didn't even say goodbye to me when I dropped him off at school.
He doesn't seem to eat at school though. Not sure if it's because he doesn't like the cold food (there's no microwave).
9/17/23
Baobao likes to point out the parents of his friends and say his friend's name.
9/22/23
We went to San Diego. This time Baobao is much better on the trip. Didn't sleep much before, but he was well entertained with new toys and watching the Mario movie.
10/2/23
Baobao is talking a lot more (not repeating us):
"Cut finger"
"Go ahead"
When asked what he did at the playground, he said: Huahua ti (slide), and qi ma (ride horse).
"Baby sleeping"
Zhan qi lai (get up). Ah Yi xia Lai (auntie come down).
Shui gou le (slept enough).
He wants to do everything himself. And then gets upset when he can't. He wants to drink from adult cup. He can catch a little bit. He asks to watch baseball. He pretended his Peter Rabbit is sitting on the toilet (using his cup holder) "Tu-da la chou chou." So funny to see him pretend like pretending he's talking on the phone or eating things. He can sing the ABC's and he likes to sing along with other songs in the Baobao learns Chinese book (twinkle little star, mama hao, row your boat, etc).
However, on our trip to San Diego and Seattle, he has had trouble sleeping. 2 nights he woke up at 3a, and few nights he refused to go to sleep. This makes us never want to travel. Strange it was all ok when we went to the beach, but that was just a few days and the first few days of travel were fine for him at the Airbnb. For nap time, we would put him to sleep, but then he would poop. And at night, he would cry and cry.
"So cute!" Regarding a dog he saw in the park.
He likes to follow other kids around that are slightly older than him. He kind of played with friend AW's kid at St Edwards park.
10/31/23
Today Wes went trick or treating as a baby Yoda. I was princess Leia and AB was Darth Vader. Many people said he was cute 🥰. He's probably confused why so many people giving him small things wrapped in plastic.
He seems to really enjoy school. They do so many activities, especially painting and sensory things. There's always a theme each week. Only thing is he doesn't eat much there.
11/10/23 2y2mo
AB says Baobao's terrible twos are better now because he can express more. I'm still skeptical. But I suppose he is a little better. A little better at understanding what's going on and expressing himself. Now he seems to understand a little about time and a little about after this, you can have this.
12/8/23 2y3mo
So we successfully dropped off Baobao for a week with my parents while AB and I went to Japan! It was really nice to be child-free. Man...all those child-less people - enjoy the time you have! Wish they could experience what it's like with a child, and then they can appreciate how wonderful child-free time is - but alas, that's not how life works.
Other recent developments:
-Baobao is able to rock climb up 9ft by himself. I'm quiet impressed.
-He had his first performance: Christmas program at his school Westbury Methodist.
-He went 2 whole days without napping. It worries us because we enjoy having alone time for 3 hrs a day. Really hope he doesn't stop napping. Thankfully he will sing for 2 hours.
-He's able to count a little bit and recognizes a few letters. Not much though.
-He will ask us some questions and remember things from a while ago. Like when I mentioned we are going to bouncy house, he remembered. Or one time out of the blue, he said airplane - mom and dad take airplane to Japan.
12/23/23 2y4mo
We went to a rockets game and Baobao was so fascinated with the mascot Clutch. He really wanted to give him a high-five so he pushed through the people sitting in our row, quickly gave Clutch a high-five, and immediately turned around to come back to me without giving Clutch a second thought. He was very determined.
1/9/24 2y4mo
Baobao is saying more things. Like "Put Tuda over here" and "Mama woke up!" (Chinese). He recently started saying "because..." I wonder if he even knows what because means. When our friend B and M came over the other day, he was so sweet with M and wanted her to play with him all the time.
But when he doesn't get a good nap like when he goes to daycare, then he gets frustrated easily and wants impossible or unreasonable things. Ah, so many time outs those days.
1/15/24 2y5mo
First time Baobao successfully put on his pants without my help! (I just indicated to him which is back and there is a right hole and a left hole, one for each feet).
1/31/24 2y5mo
First time Baobao said he didn't like someone (Naomi). We asked why if she pushed him down, and he said no. We asked if she took a toy, and he said, "she took a zebra."
"Daddy, wear Baobao's shoes"
Jesus loves me song
2/6/23 2y5mo
We feel like these are the big milestones:
4mo sleep through the night
13-14mo: one nap
26mo: talking more and communicating well, can negotiate
Also we did potty training a week ago and Baobao did so well so far! He had one accident the first day when he was eating breakfast, one at church on day 3, and hasn't had an accident till today he went to school and was playing too hard and didn't get to the potty on time (though he did pee mostly in the potty). So proud of this little guy! We followed the 3 day pdf that our friend sent, and it was great! Although we did keep the potty in the living room and we still used pull ups for naps and diaper for sleep at night. It really helped that he was already potty trained for poop (bc my parents thought he could do it when we visited in Nov), and we could tell when he was pooping so we could rush him to the potty. I did try putting him in underwear a month ago but he just peed in his pants while we were baking, so we it only lasted a few hours and I put him back in diapers. This time it helped that I had 2 of his friends over on Day 1 of training and one has just been potty training, so she was also going to potty. And then everytime Baobao went to the potty, he got a standing ovation from everyone. Stickers also helped eat time. I was so impressed the first day, he even went to the potty himself on his own without even telling me (pulling down his own pants).
I'm Chinese: "when we get to church, don't need Tuda"
Songs w likes to sing: Jesus loves me, old McDonald's (but gets stuck at old McDonald's has a farm), ABC (but says m o po Po p), twinkle twinkle little star, baba black sheep, open shut, ring around the Rosie, deep in the heart of Texas, skidamarinki, jingle bells.
2/17/24 2y6mo
W is eating better. We start the meals with his favorite foods like Frenchies fried onions, and then he's willing to eat other prepared foods. Now he even asks to start eating sometimes. W also says he doesn't like certain things or certain people because they are scary or take his toys. We've moved his nap back to 2p.
We made the decision to start him at a new school (Faith Lutheran teacher ratio 10:1) in the fall during newborn period for #2. Though we love his current school (Westbury Methodist, good teacher ratio 7:1, current class 6:2), the other one is closer, has lunch, fewer holidays, and opens later on Fridays. Also current school ext care shortening to 5:30p.
Potty training has been going pretty well (needed to do it for him to attend new school - be 3 yo and potty trained). He has had a few accidents here and there esp when playing, but overall, he's doing well. Lately he would talk about his school, but we still don't know whether to trust what he says.
2/19/24 2y6mo
W can spell his name! Nainai taught him.
Nainai: We are impressed with the progress Wesley has made in language since he started to put together words a few months ago. We noticed yesterday he chose to use a string of appropriate words very quickly. When the Choo Choo train had a piece detached again, even after I tried once to repair it, he said I can fix it. And he did. He first asked to have rubberband from Alan. He said I want some of them. Alan gave him less than he wants, he said I want all of them. That was very quick thinking. He dashed to mud room to wash hands
I followed him behind, and in seconds, he was standing on the stool and reaching for the soap. I said he could wait for help, he said, very confidently, I want to wash hands by myself. And, for the record, he can spell Wesley when he is almost 2 and 1/2 years old
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Funny things about Baobao:
*Doing the wave a full 5 seconds after everyone else did it.
*Telling us to "go ahead" when he didn't want to eat dinner yet.
*When our friend was looking for her son, Baobao said, "he's here!" Whole pointing to him.
*Ab was doing beep beep sound and laughing, and Baobao said "that's funny!"
*His favorite song on the radio is "Cruel Summer" by T swift, and he'll sing along
The other day he said "I love it!" Regarding vinegar.
Baobao said, "You ok baba?"
Baba: "I'm ok! Are you ok Baobao?"
Baobao: "No."
AB: "Silly Baobao!"
Baobao: "Silly baba!"
YW: "If you're good tomorrow, we can go on a train."
Baobao: "All aboard!"
He discovered his pockets and he filled them with acorns.
Yw: where is little brother?
Baobao: in Baobao's ear!
Baobao: "Wesley drive!"
Pretend phone conversation with AB (2y4mo):
Baobao: "Hello baba!?"
AB: "Hello Baobao!"
Baobao: "Are you busy?"
AB: "no I'm not busy, are you busy?"
Baobao: "Yes."
AB: "what are you doing?"
Baobao: "I'm eating."
AB: "what are you eating?"
Baobao: "orange"
AB: "who gave you the orange"
Baobao: "baba. Bye bye see you later!"
Baobao: "here come another poopoo!" "Big poopoo today"
When W sat in baby rocker, AB asked:
This is for didi
W: no, this is for W.
AB: but didi need to use it, is it ok?
W: We can share
