Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays everyone!!!

The month started out with Kaylee's Red Egg and Ginger party on 12/02/2012.  This is a Chinese tradition where you celebrate and "present" your child to family and friends when the baby reaches 1-month old.  Here Kaylee is dressed in her princess dress.. ready to go and waiting for everyone.  A lot of Tim's family and our friends attended the Red Egg and Ginger party and we had a great time!  Thanks everyone for celebrating Kaylee's one-month birthday!

12/08/2012

We went to have breakfast with Santa.  Here are some pictures from Breakfast with Santa.  Dominic loved it!  Of note: this is the first year Dominic has felt 'OK' sitting on Santa's lap.  Previous years Santa was in the scary catagory.

12/11/2012

Dominic participated in his school Christmas program.  Here he is while singing the song "Paint the Town December."  He was incredibly cute and I'm not just being biased!  As we were leaving a woman grabbed

my arm and yelled over the chatter "Can I tell you how incredibly cute your son is?!"  In the weeks leading up to the Christmas program Dominic could be heard singing songs about Kwanzaa and Hanukkah... we had no idea where he learned the songs until we were at the Christmas program.  :)

12/25/2012, Christmas

Every year it is always a goal of mine to give Dominic the type of Christmas I had as a child.. I have fond memories of Christmas, from going to my Auntie Carol and Uncle Miguel's home on Christmas Eve for dinner to my sister Lori and I waking my parents at the 'butt-crack-of-dawn' to open presents.  I'm not gonna lie... when Christmas comes each year I become a child and I believe in the magic of Christmas.

This year Dominic also really got into Christmas... singing Christmas carols, helping me decorate the tree, and always asking me to turn the car radio to the Christmas music station.  I love doing little special Christmas things with Dominic.  On Christmas Eve, Dominic and I sprinkled oatmeal and glitter on the front yard.  I told Dominic we were doing this so that Santa and the reindeer would see the sprinkles and know to stop by our house with presents.  :)

Goodies for Santa and Reindeer.

We also baked sugar cookies for Santa and put out some carrots and celery for the reindeer.

Some of the presents Dominic got: A Wii from us, lots of Legos (including the Utlra Sonic Raider which he asked for and got from Santa), lots of clothes (including his favorite Avengers sweater and vest outfit from Grammy and Grandpa Nakamoto), and a castle with knights and horses from Grandma and Grandpa Yep.  This year Tim and I decided to buy ourselves an early Christmas present: and snazzy coffee maker that does a carafe but also the single cup.  Here are some pictures from Christmas morning:

Tim and Dominic building his castle.

12/29/2012

We missed the pre-Christmas Flag Football Game but were able to go to the pre-New Year's Flag Football Game.  Unfortunately, the fields were reserved for a soccer tournament but the guys improvised and played on the basketball courts.  There was a good turn out and we're looking forward to the 2013 Annual Holiday Flag Football series.

Flag football

With the heavy rainfall the prior night there were earthworms ALL OVER the basketball court and Dominic was FASCINATED by all the worms.

Baby earthworms. 

Kaylee ready to go out to watch football!

  12/31/2012
  We rang in the New Year with good friends at the Berberian home.  We played poker up until the count down and Tim and I ended up the last folks standing in the poker game.

Happy Hew Year's!

Kaylee in her NYE party dress.

Dominic ringing in the New Year with pal Jasmine.

SEE EVERYONE IN 2013!!!

Newborns, Parent-teacher conferences, and Thanksgiving

Happy November!  

Kaylee had her 2-week well-child exam with her pediatrician on 11/06/2012... she is doing well and is now weighing 7 pounds, 0.5 ounces.  The pediatrician referred us to the ENT Department at Children's Hospital Oakland for a consultation for Kaylee's ear tag.  We saw the specialist on 11/15/2012 and she says the hanging ear tag is cosmetic and can be removed easily.  They will call us in December for an appointment in January 2013 to surgically remove the hanging skin tag.  The notch just above it will be more intensive and will likely require general anesthesia so they would like to wait until she is 3 years old.

We have continued to navigate transitioning from a one-child household to a two-child household. I admit it is much tougher than I thought it would be... Dominic has an established schedule and trying to fit in Kaylee, who doesn't have a schedule has been.. trying.  Dominic has had some struggles as well.  Since Kaylee arrived he has regressed in the potty and started having frequent potty accidents at school. Despite this his teachers say he has been doing really well at school.  On 11/13/2012, we had Dominic's parent teacher conference and it went really well.  The only thing they wanted to work on was that he moves at a slower pace than the other kids.. one example the teacher gave was at the end of the day all the children are lined up to leave and Dominic is still at his desk painstakingly putting away all his school stuff neatly in his back pack. Academically, he is doing well.  Here are some pictures of Dominic with Take-Home-George.  Curious George is his Kindergarten class mascot and a different child gets to take him home each weekend and then share with the class George's escapades over the weekend.

George eating breakfast with Dominic.

George watching movies with Dominic.

George playing legos with Dominic.

We also had a friend visit, Kim Hase, from Hawaii.  Kim is a college friend of ours and she stayed with us for about a week.  With Kaylee we couldn't go out to do the touristy things with Kim but it was pretty relaxing hanging out at home.  TMI (Too much information) ALERT: this was my first adventure in NIP (Nursing in Public). Kim, Kaylee, and I were at a restaurant eating lunch and Kaylee was getting hungry. I used a nursing cover and to my surprise no one even batted an eye... which I am happy about because man did I have some anxiety about that... I think I concealed my anxiety well but my heart was POUNDING!  You never know how other people are going to react (although CA law says anywhere you are allowed to bottle feed a baby you are also allowed to breastfeed).

Kaylee had her 1-month well-child exam with her pediatrician on 11/20/2012 and she continues to do well.  She weighed 8 pounds, 4.5 ounces and measured 20 inches long.  She is nursing well, thanks in part to support from the local La Leche League that I've connected with on Facebook.  She is a pretty easy-going and mellow baby.  Doesn't usually cry unless hungry, tired, or has a dirty diaper.. but even then she doesn't cry much.  She would sleep through the night if we let her (the first night home from the hospital she slept 6 hours) so I've been waking her every three hours to nurse and will probably do this until nursing is well established. 

Thanksgiving crafts with Dominic!

We had a great Thanksgiving. We didn't want to have to travel with Kaylee being so young so we celebrated with family and friends at our house.  Thanksgiving was also technically Kaylee's 1-month birthday so we celebrated with a traditional Red Egg and Ginger party with family... alongside the turkey was a roast pig!

Following each holiday (Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years) Tim organizes an annual flag football game... this is the one after Thanksgiving, with a pretty good turn out.  Kaylee, Dominic, and I went also and it was great fun!

 

Here are some pictures from November...

11/03/2012, Kaylee is one week and 5 days old.  This was family movie night and both Kaylee and Dominic fell asleep on the couch in between Tim and I during the movie.

Kaylee's first outting with Mommy and Daddy... headed out to lunch, 11/02/2012.





   Kaylee's first bath, 11/09/2012.

The end of November was spent getting ready for the Red Egg and Ginger party that Tim's parents held for Kaylee.  I put together some small decorations.  The party was planned for 12/02/2012 at the West Lake Restaurant.

Baby Kaylee and family adjustments...

The most exciting thing that has changed with us was the addition of Baby Kaylee to the Yep Family!  On October 22, 2012 Kaylee was born, 6 pounds, 14 ounces and measuring 19 inches.

 Kaylee was born via cesarean section and the procedure went well and smooth... We opted for a repeat c-section since Dominic's birth was so scary with him getting stuck in my pelvis, resulting in an emergency c-section... For Kaylee, we went to the hospital at 8am for the c-section scheduled at 10am.  23 minutes later and Kaylee was born.  The month of October was definitely one of adjusting to life with a newborn.

Tim cutting Kaylee's umbilical cord.

My first look at Kaylee... despite going through such a procedure she is peacefully sleeping... but not for long!

 

 

 

Kaylee has two Mongolian spots on her back (common on Asian babies and usually fades over time).
Kaylee was also born with two skin tags on her left ear, almost like she has a duplicate ear lobe in front of her correct ear lobe. *Go to the November 2012 post for a picture* It seems to be hereditary as Dominic was also born with an ear anomaly.  On his right ear there is a tiny pinpoint hole where the top of his ear meets his face (it almost looks like I took a thumbtack and poked him, leaving a hole).  A fascinating tidbit (only because the ultrasounds were normal.  Had the ultrasounds not been normal, fascinating would not be the right word...) is that in-utero, when the ears are formed, it is the same time the fetus' kidneys are formed... so when there are anomalies in the ear of a newborn there is a chance the kidneys might also be malformed.  As such, the hospital did an ultrasound on Kaylee's kidney when she was 2 days old to make sure they were formed completely and normally.  This was also done when Dominic was born.  Gladly, the ultrasounds on both Dominic and Kaylee showed normally formed kidneys.  Kaylee's pediatrician will refer us to a pediatric Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) specialist to look at and consult on what to do.  Likely it is cosmetic and can easily be removed.  

Proud Daddy!

Tuesday, 10/23/2012

  Dominic couldn't wait to hold Kaylee, then started to get scared when she started crying...         

                      

Wednesday, 10/24/2012

Dominic is such a proud big brother!

.

Grandma and Grandpa Nakamoto came to visit for Kaylee's birth...  Here is Grandpa Nakamoto holding Kaylee.

Daddy's girl!

Thursday, 10/25/2012

We decided to discharge from the hospital a day early.  All seems to be going well, although breastfeeding has been a comedy of fumbles...

Monday, 10/29/2012

Kaylee is one week old!

Wednesday, 10/31/2012

Dominic was SO excited to be Captain America this year for Halloween!  Grandma and Grandpa Nakamoto bought Dominic the Captain America costume.  At Dominic's school the kids had a Halloween Parade and Mommy got to go to the parade while Daddy stayed home with Kaylee. That night Dominic went trick-or-treating with his friends Jason, Jasmine, and Sophia.