bonnie & jason

Alissa likes bananas but not hanging from poles

We’ve been putting fruit in this baby mesh sucking thingy. Basically, you put little pieces of stuff in there and the baby sucks on it through the mesh. That way, they don’t choke on anything. It’s really messy, but Alissa seems to like bananas and peaches in it.

Also, Alissa has always had a pretty strong grip and more recently has been getting practice pulling herself up on everything. So I thought I would see if she would enjoy trying pullups. Apparently, not a big fan.

We also tried it at Gymboree with similar results:

Speaking of which, we tried out a free session just to see if it was something we wanted to do regularly. It was kinda interesting to see what they did and see the huge range of babies out there. (There was one boy who was four days younger than Alissa but weighed 25 pounds!) But all in all, we didn’t feel like it was something that we would go to ongoing. I think there are enough little kids around for Alissa to interact with for the most part. Megan, Abigail, Rylee, and now Aidan will form their own little Gymboree.

I did take some pictures though… here are a few:

Alissa and Aidan

And finally, a look back to when Alissa was about the same age as Aidan is now. Same hat and swaddle blanket:

Alissa’s nine month checkup (and some random pics)

Alissa was 16 lbs, 6 oz (10th percentile), 25.75″ long (4th percentile) at her nine month appointment yesterday. This is down from the 25th and 10th percentile numbers from her six month appointment. Not to worry though, Dr. Langston said she’s doing fine and that he won’t really be concerned at all until she’s two years old. Interestingly, her head was 17″ in circumference which is at the 25th percentile. So I guess she’s short, chubby, with a huge head!

Despite her top-heavy weight distribution, she’s been crawling and climbing and pulling herself up with abandon. So far, no major falls or anything, but she’s getting harder to keep track of. I have a feeling she’ll be walking before her 1st birthday so we’ll enjoy this time before she starts running around the house.

Anyway, here are some random pictures that I had on my phone and on other miscellaneous memory cards that I thought were worth sharing.

Alissa with Aunt Viv at Okazu Ya:

Alissa and grandma at her office before she retired (Alissa 6 months old):

Alissa and me on her first plane ride:

Aidan with his eyes open and brow furrowed:

Lewit swings a bat

Vin was in town a couple weeks ago so Lewit and I took him to Malibu. Here’s Mat in the batting cages… pretty darn funny.

Lewit batting cages from Jason Wang on Vimeo.

Alissa likes tea

alissa tea from Jason Wang on Vimeo.

Poo brown coffee table trim

Alas, we have joined the ranks of those parents who have had to sacrifice their extravagantly decorated *ahem* living room in the name of safety. As such, behold, our newly trimmed coffee table in poo brown.

Alissa has been pulling herself up on everything the last couple weeks. She does slip occasionally but usually cushions her fall. Last week, she cushioned her fall with her chin which left a 3-day line. It’s pretty amazing how quickly babies heal. The same mark would have taken me 2 weeks to recover from.

Here’s some coffee table video.

alissa coffee table from Jason Wang on Vimeo.

Alissa has teeth!

No, she doesn’t have two buck teeth as the pictures above imply. It looks pretty darn funny though! I swear she’s channeling some dentally challenged cousin from the Clampets. Funny pictures aside, one of her bottom front teeth seems to have finally erupted. And the “teeth” in the pictures is actually a banana puff that she’s trying to gum into submission.

We also went to the store today. Since it was sunny out, we velcro’d on Alissa’s pink hat:

And although Alissa has just now mastered crawling, she’s also pretty good at standing up by pulling herself up.

Welcome Aidan!

Kathy and Eric welcomed Aidan into the world yesterday!

He’s a cutie!

Walking into the maternity ward brought some memories back. Can’t believe it’s already been more than 8 months! Both Bonnie and I said we couldn’t remember Alissa being that small when in fact, she was actually almost a pound lighter when she was born.

Alissa, trapped

Some of Bonnie’s hair clips

As Deeann mentioned on her blog, hair clips for babies are amazingly expensive! So Bonnie decided to try making some of her own with some supplies from the local crafts store. Here are some of the ideas she’s come up with so far. If you have any suggestions, let her know!