…well, not exactly…

During out trip home, meems, Z, E and I spent an afternoon visiting my dad at his work.  My dad’s an engineer and he works at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and when we were younger, we use to go to JPL quite often (mostly for their open house but also to visit our dad).

My in-laws live not too far from where JPL’s campus is located so meems picked us up mid afternoon so we can have lunch with my dad and Will (my brother-in-law).

For security reasons, we all had to wear visitor badges, even E and Z despite the fact that they haven’t even reached 1 yet and haven’t even started crawling for that matter.  You know them babies, just can’t trust them.  Never know what kinda spy equipment they have hiding in those diapers.

After our dad took us around the office to show the babies off to his coworkers as well as a few other strangers that came out of their office to see check out what’s going on, we headed over to the cafeteria to meet up with Will.

People at the cafeteria were amused that there were two little babies around.  Some even joked that they are by far the youngest recruits to join so far.

At one point, both babies were fussing because they were hungry so both meems and I busted out the boob to feed our babies.  My dad thought it was a funny sight to see at the cafeteria full of engineers and scientists.

I got some fruit with my lunch plate so I let E have a nibble of my catelope.  She was so excited that she grabbed the fork out of my hands and held on to it on her own.

After lunch, we walked back towards the visitor’s lobby.  Before we left JPL though, we took some pictures with our dad as well as stop by the gift shop for some nerdy onsies.

Here’s our dad with E on the left and Z on the right.  My dad’s pretty lucky since he got to be a grandpa twice in one year.  He was also very proud that day taking us around and showing both E and Z to people.

Here’s my dad with his two daughters and two grandchildren….and my dad hasn’t even hit 60 yet!  People kept telling him that they find it hard to believe he is a grandfather :)  Advantage of having kids young I guess.

The nice lady at the visitor’s lobby let E keep her visitor’s pass, which she was highly amused with playing with for a while.

Both E and Z were tired from their afternoon trip and both fell asleep during the few minute car ride from JPL to meem’s apartment.  Awww, look at those cute sleepy faces :)

So will E be an engineer like her grandpa?  Who knows….Z has a higher likely chance but you never know :)

Ok, so technically E is a week or two shy of being 7 months….but who’s counting anyway, right?

So yes, my baby is at 6 months now. She can do so many more things than before. It’s really quite amazing how many milestones she’s reached. Our 2 week trip home seems to have brought out a lot of her abilities to do things even though she has already started doing many things before we even left.

Let’s check out some of her new abilities….

Sitting – E began sitting around 4-5 months. She would fall over a lot but she actually enjoyed the sitting position. Now she can sit on her own without too much of a problem. She still topples over when she reaches out too far to reach for something but she can pretty much hold her own now.

Grabbing – When E was smaller, she would grab things involuntarily. Nowadays, she is purposely reaching out and grabbing things. It’s quite amusing to see what she’ll reach out to grab….unless it’s your food that she’s aiming for or the pen that you are using…then it’s not as funny. Oh and hair, she loves to grab hair…which is why I lopped all mine off as soon as we got back to Tokyo. She also has a love for remote controls and my computer. Somehow, she always manages to turn things on and off as well as change channels. She’s going to be quite a techie.

Exploring – E is a very inquisitive child. She loves to look at everything and touch everything. Most importantly, she loves to put everything into her mouth. Ever since she started grabbing things, she has also been examining everything she manages to get her hands on. Then she proceeds to put it in her mouth. The first few times, I’d stop her but now, unless it’s something that poses as a chocking hazard, I just let her do whatever she wants.

Playing – E plays with toys now. Before, if you gave her a toy, she’d stare at hit, maybe swat at it a little and then lose interest. Now, she would actually sit there and play with the toys that we bought her…which then leads to the grabbing and exploring.

Laughing – I don’t quite remember when she started to laugh so much. It’s quite cute actually and I love to watch her laugh at things. Many things amuse her. Most notable is headbutting her while sayind “doskoi”, something that Jason started and is a move in Street Fighters. THe strange child really loves that. Of course, she also loves it when you pretend to eat her arms, legs and cheeks. I’ve also discovered that she loves to be called master or give her “hi-fives”. It makes her crack up everytime. She’s also taken a liking to the game of peek-a-boo too.

Feeding – Since people normally start solids at around 6 months, we decided to do so also. So far, we’ve given her bananas and rice…Though during our trip home, E had a wide variety of food to lick and suck on. She’s making a mess when eating but she is actually not doing too bad. She definitely is showing interest in human food. The large amount of drool she made while watching me eat airplane food is one good example of that.

Unfortunately, for everything that she’s advance on, there are still a few things that we wish would improve a little more.

Sleeping – For a while, we were doing pretty good with getting her onto a sleeping routine. Then all of a sudden right before our trip, all hell broke loose and she refused to sleep. That carried on to the first few days we were back in California. Then she started to get use to the time change and then we dragged her all the way back to Tokyo where the confusion started all over again.

Technically, she hasn’t been too bad since coming home. She’s taking about 2-3 naps a day, 1-3 hours each. She goes to bed around 7-9pm and tends to be asleep for a while in her own crib. Plus she’s not as hard to put down like she use to. So it’s not too bad….but then again, as soon as we think we have this all figured out, she’s going to change it up on us and all hell will break loose again.

Separation Anxiety – Technically this hasn’t been too big of a problem but I have noticed that since coming home, she gets really upset when I leave the room or is out of sight. She didn’t have this problem before but I guess all the attention she got when we were home might have done something to trigger this behavior.

Teething – She’s been a massive drooler since 4 months but there is still no teeth! It’s starting to get a little frustrating but I guess it can’t be helped. Her gums are still pretty strong that when she chomps down on the boob, it hurts like heck. Yea, not really looking forward to teeth.

So there you have it, my baby is growing up way too fast for me (and this blog) to catch up. Before you know it, she’ll be walking and running amuck in our tiny apartment. That’ll be when a new set of headaches will open up….

Well, we’re home again…

It’s amazing how quickly 2 weeks can pass by. I actually still wish I was home since I feel like there was still so much to do and people to see. Unfortunately, Jason needed to go back to work and I wasn’t too keen on traveling with E alone on such a long plane ride so it’s back to Tokyo we go.

So yea, we’re back. On the up side, at least I can run around town again with the use of public transportation. It was pretty difficult being able to go anywhere since we had to rely on other people driving us around.

Anyway, we’re all suffering from a bit of jet lag so I will update more about the trip and other stuff as we get back into our routine.

At least it is much cooler and less humid now than when we left Tokyo 2 weeks ago.

E really enjoys watching Jason play video games.  During the time when Gilbert was down here with us, he brought over his xbox so that Jason can play some Street Fighter 4 with him and Mike.  We don’t have the game since we don’t have a PS3 or xbox and it doesn’t run on Jason’s computer so he was trying to get as much play time in as he can.

Whenever I pass E over for him to hold, he would have her sit there with him as he played on the joystick.  E LOVES to watch him play and would stare at the tv as well as Jason’s hands when he played.  I think she might have been making the connection that things moved on the screen when her dad pushed buttons on the joystick in front of her.

When Jason took a break for a little while, E jumped at the chance to push the buttons on her own (well, with my support).

Amazingly enough, she made several 2 hit combos as well as get an achievement award for taunting the enemy….and all from button mashing too!

She’s also taken a liking to the DS.  Everytime Jason or I played on it, she would turn her attention to the DS and tried to scratch at the touch screen to make things happen.

I have a feeling this kid will be a gamer….

We spent most of our first week at my in-law’s house since Gilbert, Jason’s older brother, took time off to see us.  I spent Monday out shopping for baby stuff with meems and Wednesday helping her out with some last minute wedding preparations but other than that, the rest of the week was spent relaxing at home with Gilbert.

On one of our “outings” with Gilbert, we went to the Souplantation for dinner.  E was for the most part cooperative since she slept a bit while we ate.  She woke up halfway through dinner and watched us eat while drooling.

So to commemorate her dining at an American family all-you-can-eat dining establishment, we have….more pictures!

E and Jason.  You can see the massive drool area on her bib.  The sock/mitten on her right hand is there to keep her from scratching the dry skin around her neck that developed after we came back to the US.  Just like her father, change in environment and temperature makes them itchy.

Ever since she started grabbing things a few weeks ago, she has been taking advantage of her new ability by grabbing food and plates on the table.  I believe she was aiming for some food that was left over on Jason’s plate….I think.  Either that or she was getting ready to suck on the edge of the table.

She got a little upset when we kept pushing all the plates away from her so I gave her a little soft serve for her to taste.  She seemed to like it which worries me a little.  She might have picked up bad eating habits from me…..

We also gave her some water from a cup.  She tries to lick the outside of the cup when trying to drink but I think she’s starting to understand how to drink from a cup.  With a little more practice I’m sure she will figure it out soon enough.  As a reward for her efforts, we gave her some water from a spoon.  Just look at her go!

She’s so cute :)  It’s hard to believe how fast she’s growing up!

We arrived in California on Friday but didn’t really do much since we were tired from our trip.  Plus Saturday was going to be a big day for us since my in-laws were holding a welcome home party for us.  It was going to be E’s first Chinese banquet…and boy was she in for a big night.

Saturday morning, meems (my sister), Will (brother-in-law) and Zachary (my nephew), came over to visit us before the big dinner party.  It was great seeing my sister again and it was really fun meeting Zachary for the first time.  He’s currently 2 1/2 months old and holding him reminded me of how light E use to be.  She’s a whopping 16 lbs now so she’s starting to get a bit heavier to hold for long periods of time.

Z’s quite an easy baby from what I’ve notice.  He’s much easier than E at least.  E and Z are quite different when it comes to temper.  It’s ok, we love E even though she has a tendancy to cry bloody murder at the drop of a hat.

That night, we arrived at the NBC restaurant in Monterey Park for E’s big party.  It was actually quite a busy night at the restaurant.  I think there was a wedding as well as 2 other parties going on at the same time.  Because of all the partying going on, the restaurant was quite noisy….that was a sign that trouble was up ahead.

In my mind, I had imagined that E’s party would be a nice little gathering of close friends and family members only.  I guess I tend to forget that we have a lot of family and close friends.  The final guest count came out to be 90 people….and we were all shoved into a small room with a low ceiling…another thing I was worried about in the back of my mind before the party started.

E was actually pretty good when we first arrived since there was only 1 guest there at the time.  People began to stream in slowly and the room got progressively louder as more people arrived.  A lot of people were excited to see E for the first time and many of them came up to her and took her into their arms.  Probably not a good idea since she was probably still a bit jetlagged and I’m pretty sure she was freaked out by the fact that strangers were taking her out of my arms and holding her.  Of course, the noise didn’t help too.  Yea, every time she left my arms, she would give me a look that said “How could you abandon me, mommy!”

Pretty soon, E had a meltdown and started crying everytime someone came up to her.  I think I spent a good chunk of the meal going out to the parking lot area to calm her down.  She would instantly calm down when outside and the minute that we stepped foot into the restaurant, she had this terrified look on her face.

Poor E….she needs more practices with Chinese banquets, especially since she’s Chinese and will probably encounter more of these events later in life.

Since I was busy with E most of the evening, I didn’t get a chance to take pictures so these were taken by my cousin, Nicole.

On the otherhand, it was great getting a chance to see a lot of family and old friends though!  I got to catch up with some of my friends whenever my mother-in-law took E out for a walk.  Seems like one of my high school friends will be expecting their first child soon!  So exciting!  I think my college roommate will be trying for kids now too.  Yea, sounds about right I guess.  We are at the age where we are either getting married or starting families soon :)