Dumplings

Forrest's first dumpling? No he's got a while to wait for that. But daddy likes to pretend feed him and Lotus is all too ready to seize the moment!

Cloth Diapers

Here's Forrest sporting one of his cutest cloth diapers! After testing out a variety of styles I didn't really settle on one kind. We use pockets because they're easier for Nainai, covers and inserts because I like that they're more reusable, plus fitteds as the nighttime heavy hitter. But no matter what he's wearing, it makes less waste, saves us money, and makes his bum super fluffy and cute!

100 Days!

Yesterday Forrest turned 100 days old! This is an important milestone in Chinese culture, but Yeye and Nainai didn't seem to want to do anything to celebrate beyond dressing him up in his red bib and silver pendant and taking some pictures. So that's what we did. Congratulations Forrest, you're in triple digits now!

Yeye Nainai

Forrest's other set of grandparents arrived a few weeks ago to take care of him when I went back to work. They've had a very hard time accepting the fact that sometimes (more often than we'd like) babies cry for no discernible reason. In fact they insist that Li Zhuang never cried as a baby. A likely story! But, I've been impressed at how well they adjusted and how independent they can be, getting to know the neighborhood and grocery stores on their own. While living with them can be pretty annoying at times, they are also a huge help!

Nainai sings Xiao Yanzi, a Chinese song from her childhood, to Forrest to put him to sleep for naps. It seems to work! Except when it doesn't.

Yeye jumps right in and tries out the crazy contraptions we have in our arsenal  in the hopes of stopping the baby from crying. He's a brave grandpa!

3 Months Old!

It's official, we can now stop measuring his age in weeks and just refer to him in months. He hasn't been formally weighed in a while but he's definitely over 15 pounds. This was a big month for us since Forrests's Yeye and Nainai (grandparents) arrived and I went back to work. It's an adjustment for sure, and pretty overwhelming at times, but we're lucky to have all the help at home and logistically things are going fine. The worst thing at this point is his sleeping - I had hoped he would at least be trending in the right direction, sleeping longer stretches at a time, but no in fact he's waking up more than ever. So yeah, nights are pretty fun for me, and you can imagine I'm totally on the ball at work. But, Forrest can also see much farther now - he'll smile at Nainai from across the room - and he's starting to play with toys which is good because it gives us another tool to use to distract him from crying. He's definitely getting more fun, I just wish I had more time and more brain cells to enjoy it!

Out to Lunch

Out to lunch on my last full day off. Forrest sat on the bench and let me eat - so grown up!

Grab Bag

In the last week or two Forrest has learned to grab things. Such as hair, and glasses, oh joy! He also grabs his zebra toy and studies it carefully before drooling all over it.

Baby Zumba

This was a regular Zumba class but my friend and I turned it into baby Zumba, which is a class someone should start for real - my million dollar idea! Forrest slept through most of it but once I took him out he could watch the neon workout outfits and bop along to the music!

Family Resemblance

Li Zhuang's baby picture next to Forrest. See any similarities?

Family Time

Tummy Time

Forrest has never loved tummy time but lately he's tolerating it more than he used to. Here he is working out his upper body!

Snoozing

Their favorite activity.

2 Months Old!

Forrest is 2 months and weighs 13.5 pounds. No wonder it's getting harder to carry him around. It's true what they say about newborn time - the days are long but the months are short. He's started smiling a lot more and even gives daddy a laugh every now and then. And it's feeling less like he cries all the time because he now has slightly longer stretches where he can be awake and content, and during those times we can see he is really looking around at stuff. He still sleeps like a baby, in the literal sense of the phrase, as in not very much in a row, but he is also as cute as a button - both figuratively and literally, since buttons are in fact super cute.

Purple Monster

Nothing like a little jaunt at Fresh Pond on a fall day, wearing your purple monster hat. What we discovered on this walk is that Lotus does NOT like us to be separated. I tried to take her around the pond the other way and the first chance she got she sprinted back to Daddy and Forrest. So naturally we then did some experiments to see which combinations of family members she felt most drawn to. And that was our animal behavior research project for the day!

Sibling Secrets

I think she's teaching him how to be a good dog.

Sweats

Forrest is ready for a workout! Will he be on American Ninja Warrior or on So You Think You Can Dance? Only time will tell...

Picnic With Grandpa

Baby Love

Pepa loves her cousin Forrest! She loves to hug him and kiss him and smother him if we let her. Just as fiercely as she loves her brother Diego. The fun thing about watching her with the babies is that she sees them as real people that she can play with and laugh with. These first couple months I've felt like Forrest is more of a pet (a very high maintenance pet) than an actual child. Watching Pepa interact with him as a real person is a nice reminder of what he will grow into!

Cousins in the Bath

Pepa loves to bathe with the babies!

Social Smile

Forrest has started smiling! But it's nearly impossible to get a picture of it, so all I have to show for now is this blurry shot. The smiles are great because it's our first glimpse of the possibility that he may become more than just a lump.