bonnie & jason

Kathy’s Baby Shower

Bonnie threw Kathy a baby shower yesterday complete with food, games, and party favors.

Here are some food shots:



My version of the potato Lyonnaise that we had at Morton’s:

We didn’t make the cake, but Bonnie did make the catepillar… it’s mini-muffin tops with frosting.

Most new parents will find this custom onesie apropos (Everyone came up with some very creative ones).

The favors below are one serving hot chocolate cones complete with marshmallows and sprinkles.

Mommy to be with future daughter in law? Could be… Alissa is still playing the field though.

We had a bunch of other babies at the party as well. It’s pretty amazing how close in age a lot of our friends’ babies are:
Ryan – 7 weeks

Chloe – 13 months


Carys – 7 months (only five days older than Alissa but she’s much bigger with longer hair!)

Alissa

Finally, a picture of the group… can you believe all the babies are looking at the camera at the same time? This may be the one and only time that ever happens in my “professional” career.

Finally, a real video!

Eric helped me pull together a quick edit of Alissa’s first day video!  I think it looks great!  I have to get a mac… iMovie seems to work really well.  More on that later.  In the meantime, enjoy the video.  (Can’t believe it’s only been 2 months…)

[quicktime width="320" height="195"]http://homepage.mac.com/eric.wong/baby_alissa_first_movie.mov[/quicktime]

Alissa’s pics, day 1 and 2

We came home from the hospital today so I got a chance to upload some of the images I’ve taken over the last couple days.  Click on the image above for the Flickr slideshow.

FYI, mom and baby are both still doing just fine.  We are getting used to each other from trying to interpret Alissa’s cries, to figuring out how to get the car seat in the Accord, to debating about whether or not Alissa is the cutest baby we’ve ever seen.

We are a little tired but focused on recovering from labor while trying to enjoy our new bundle of joy.  She is pretty well behaved for the most part, but definitely prefers to be held vs. in her crib/bassinet/car seat.  I think that’s pretty typical.  We’ll see how we cope with it as our sleep deprivation starts to pile up.

That’s about it for now.  It took me about 2 hours to write this with the new “distraction” around the house.  Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Picture of the day?! No… picture of the year!

After a couple hours of active pushing (and just a little help from mr. vacuum) Alissa Kate Wang was born at 5:45 pm at 6 lbs, 14 oz and 19″.  She got her shots (Hep, Vitamin E) and Erythromycin with nary a cry and nurse Elaine even gave her a bath with minimal fuss.  According to the nurses, she’s definitely a mellow baby… so far.

Obviously, Alissa’s birth was one of the most amazing moments of my life.  At the risk of seeming unfeeling, the process itself was fairly pedestrian.  But only because I’m comparing it to the overwhelming feelings of joy/pride/can’t-put-them-into-words the moment she came out.  It really was remarkable.

Bonnie’s parents and Benita were in the waiting room and visited for a while before heading home.  I have to say, even given my obvious bias, that she is a really cute baby.  The picture above is not so good since I was trying to take it with my camera phone with one hand while holding her with the other.  But I’ll have some better pics up tomorrow and you’ll see, she is certainly a cutie.  She does have a pretty good cone head going though… but it’s hard to tell with her hat on.

Another funny observation… at one point, we had three cell phones going on while I was on IM with a couple people, and trying to post pictures to Flickr with my cell phone.  What’s communication technology going to be like when Alissa has kids?

Anyway, thanks to everyone for their well wishes.  Mom and baby (and dad if anyone cares) are doing just fine.  We’ll be here until Friday afternoon before taking Alissa home.  Look for more pictures as I get my other camera stuff uploaded.

Bonnie sleeping, getting ready for the big moment!

Engines are firing!

At 12:50, Dr. Huang visited us and broke Bonnie’s water.  That may make the contractions come more regularly or we may start pitocin around 1:30 in hopes that we can deliver between 2 (after which the antibiotics have taken hold) and 4, when our awesome nurse, Chris, leaves us for the day.

So far so good!

The launch sequence has begun!

Bonnie started having contractions at 3 am this morning!  We had a doctor appointment already scheduled for 8:45 am, but by the time we left the house, the contractions were already 5 minutes apart and lasting almost 1 minute.  So we just went straight to the hospital.  When Bonnie got checked out, she was already 100% effaced and nearly 4cm dilated. It’s almost noon now, and she’s got an IV, antibiotic, and epidural in place.  The last exam revealed she’s almost 8cm dilated now so we’re well on our way!  We need to try to wait until 2pm though, so the antibiotic has a chance to get into the baby’s system.

Anyway, as you may have figured out, I found free wireless here so I’m blogging while Bonnie tries to get some sleep… while in labor!  (That epidural is some good stuff!)  Maybe I’ll even be able to get a picture up before the night is through.  Stay tuned!

T-minus 6 and Counting

So yeah, no baby.  But I do have something very exciting to report.  Bonnie has invented yet another ghetto dish.  Some of you dedicated readers may remember the ghetto garlic bread made with semi-stale hot dog buns that Benita mocked but then inhaled.  Well, today, I forgot to bring home a McDonalds Apple Pie.  So Bonnie, like any self-respecting craving-crazed pregnant lady would do, decided to make her own with what we had in the house.  So, she threw together some wheat bread, butter, cinnamon, and apples (from Kathy and Eric’s backyard) in the toaster and voila!  Ghetto Apple Pie!  Pretty tasty actually.  And probably healthier than the McDonald’s version.

T-Minus 7 and Counting

Bonnie and I realized today that we haven’t spent this much time together since our honeymoon.  But today, I spent some time on the “honey-do” list installing a carpet runner down the stairs, a motion detector light in the tunnel entrance, and re-potting the orchid Bonnie’s mom got us last week.  In turn, Bonnie did some organizing and cleaning in the baby’s room.  We’re running out of things to do though, so hopefully Alissa comes soon before we get too bored with each other!

On another topic, I’ve decided to try doing a “pic of the day” to keep my chops sharp in the wedding off-season.  Here are the inaugural images.  They’re of the orchid I mentioned previously.

T-minus 8 and Counting

Another present lies under the tree for Alissa (thanks Vicki and Tony) but she is still holding her ground.  Or holding her womb I should say.  Hopefully this is not an indication of how stubborn she will be later on in life.  Technically, I suppose she really isn’t due for another 8 days.  But her mom would be much happier if she came sooner rather than later.  As such, so would her dad.

One more thing… for those of you who were waiting with bated breath to see who would receive the holiday Chia-Homer, it turns out Vin was the lucky loser, I mean winner.