6/9/04 The trip to Cleveland was okay. It was worth it to see my mom and relatives. The tough part was that it was only a weekend. For Asia, that is more difficult. Zach had fun. He really got along with his cousin George. I even let George and a college friend of his take Zach out to Best Buy. His friend wanted to buy a new TV. At first, my mom and aunt didn't want me to let Zach go. They were afraid that George wouldn't keep an eye on Zach and Zach would run off. Or George would get in an accident. But I trusted George. He's always seemed like a responsible kid. He's already finished his first 3 years of an advanced degree and starts med school in the fall. or even maybe now. Anyway, Zach had a great time. They even called to see if it was okay for them to stay out longer and get something to eat. My aunt told them to take Zach out for ice cream. :) The report when they got back was that Zach ate 6 chicken nuggets! That's amazing. Asia, on the other hand, wouldn't leave my side, even for my mom! There were a few moments here and there where I was able to sneak away. That was when she occasionally let my aunt or mom hold her or take her outside. But for the most part, she wanted me to hold her. Probably because of the unfamiliar surroundings. Again, Zach had a ball. Watched cable - Nickelodeon or Disney channel. Ate ice cream. Got lots of attention. Played Pikachu video games with his cousin. I think this is the first time he played a video game. He kept wanting George to go up to his room to play pikachu ( I forget what Zach actually called it.. something like pikaball) or he wanted to go downstairs with George where there's a ping pong table, piano, and dance machine. I had Zach sleep with me in the queen-size bed in Wayne's room while Asia slept on the floor on a sleeping bag and quilt. She had a hard time going to sleep, but she didn't roll around too much. Mostly, she'd get up and want to play with me. Usually, I put her in her crib with a bottle. She drinks it and then plays by herself for a little bit in her crib, then falls asleep by herself. On the floor at my aunt's house was more difficult because she could actually get up and walk around.

So Zach and Asia are sick again. Zach's almost well. Asia got the cold from him and now I have it. It's tough because we all like to kiss each other or share food, spoons, etc. This cold hits you in the nose first. Then works its way into your eyes. Zach and Asia would wake up with their poor eyes caked closed. Zach was a little worse than Asia. He would wake up crying becauses he couldn't open his eyes. Asia would just kinda roll around wondering what all the gook was in her eyes. For me, I have this bad sore throat, stuffy nose kinda thing. I'm hoping my eyes don't get like theirs, but one of my eyes is starting to get a little gunky. We also had to get eye drops for Zach because his one eye really got infected. Zach was so good with Dr. Narayan! He let Dr. N look in his eye and everything. He was pretty good with the eye drops at first because he's never had eye drops. But after the first few times, he would cry bloody murder because he didn't want the drops. I had to coaxe him with lots of M&M's and lollipops. Even that got old because we had to do this 5 times a day for 6 days! I'd say, look what I got for you, holding up some treat. He'd say, those are for after the eye drops? I'd say yes. He'd then respond, then let's wait awhile. The kid's too smart.

Asia's said her first sentence a few weeks ago: "I want the Bob." Yes, we are a house full of Bob the Builder. Asia knows "Muck" and "Nenny" - Wendy. She loves to look at Bob the Builder books and if you sing the song, she'll hum along or sing "Bob bob bob bob..." Her vocab now: light, bob, muck, dog, milk, poopoo, spoon, no, dada, mama, flowers, pooh bear, nose, mouth, big bird, elmo (more like melmo). She can also say "I want the.." She's also good at recognizing sounds. She has some favorite books and will point at objects in the books over and over. If you answer correctly, she'll keep pointing at the same thing til you say it right. She likes a Disney Babies book - Goofy catches a fish. She has a favorite puppy book. Also a pull the flap book that has farm animals. A few Elmo books. a Barney book. And she likes Zach's Bob the Builder books.

5/19/04 I'm flying with the kids to Cleveland this weekend to visit my mom, who's in town visiting friends and her brother. I'm thinking that since it's just an hour flight, that I can handle it. Oh boy, I hope so. So Asia's vocab is growing. Here's what she can sort of say along with pointing to it: mama, dada, ball, mouth, nose, no, Bob (Bob the Builder), ba-ba (bottle), juice, shoes, socks (sort of), light (though it's more like lut). For Zach, aka Big Brother, she says some kind of thing like bi buhbuh.

5/6/04 Another mother's day coming up. :) Asia was sick last night. I think she ate something bad. She was outside yesterday pulling grass and flower leaves, occasionally putting them into her mouth. I didn't think she actually ate any. But last night, she started throwing up. She threw up several times over the night. Poor girl. Actually, she was more like retching since there wasn't anything left in her tummy. By 6 AM this morning, she was all happy and fine. A little tired by the time she needed to go to daycare.

3/31/04 The little girl's sick again. Fever of 101. She had a doctor's appointment on Monday. She got a shot in each leg, and then had to get a blood test from her toe. Poor girl. I felt so bad for her. And then to top it off, the blood test result said that her hemoglobin count was low. So now she has to go to the actual blood lab to get another blood test that will be more thorough to rule out anemia. It's possible she has beta thalasemia like I do. Something about my red blood cells being smaller than normal so my results show anemia-like levels - low count, low iron, etc. I remember getting blood tests saying that I was anemic, and then getting another blood test a week or so later showing that I was normal. So hopefully the same is with Asia. I have no idea what you do about real anemia. Is it something you just live with? Is it treatable? Do you just have to take iron supplements all the time? And you're tired all the time? Hmmmm... I'll have to look into that. Funny how Zach didn't show any of these traits. When he was supposed to get his blood test, I didn't know that the doctor could give it to him instead of the blood lab. So I postponed his lead/anemia test for months. The doctor kept bugging me at each appointment on when I was going to get Zach the test. I finally told the doctor that I was afraid of taking him to the blood lab. I didn't trust the phlobotomists to be able to just poke him once and get enough blood. And I didn't think I could stand all the screaming. I hated it when I had to get so many blood tests when pregnant. I can't imagine a child having to go through that. Better to have a nurse that he knows do it in a small private room. Argh.

3/20/04 Nice day today. We took the kids for a nice long walk in their double stroller to the West Loop area. The kids loved it! They love being outside. It was a bit windy at times. Towards the end, Zach was about to fall asleep in the stroller. He put his head down on the cupholder thing and stopped responding to questions and what-not. Asia started to get tired too.

3/13/04 Asia is sick again. Poor girl has a fever. She'll get up and play a bit, eat as normal. Then get real sleepy and just want to sit in your lap. She had her first major fall yesterday. Her sitter was throwing her diaper away and forgot to lock the gate going downstairs. Asia's so fast, that she made it to the stairs before the sitter could catch her. I was in the kitchen at the time and heard the crash. Just a little bump near her eye, but other than that she was fine. Cried for a few minutes, then was ready to play again. I think it was mainly the act of falling that scared her more than the pain of the landing.

2/18/04 It's fun watching Asia play these days. She likes to put objects into containers. Like her doll into the spaghetti pot in the pots and pans cabinet. She'll rearrange things in my bathroomo. Take the bag of cotton balls out of one drawer and put them into another drawer. She also likes to help me clean up Zach's room. We'll put his blocks away into the cardboard box. She likes to take one block, open up the box, put the block in, then close the box. Take the next block from the floor, open up the box, put the block away, then close the box. It's very cute. She also likes to do whatever her big brother is doing. But if he makes any loud noise at her, she starts to cry.

1/22/04 My first time away from both kids... especially my first time away from Asia. I'm in Las Vegas on a company trip. I'll be here from Wed til Saturday. I miss the kids already. We celebrated Asia's birthday on Sunday. She's 1 years old now!! We had the sisters' house over, brothers' house, Samulaks, and a few other saints - probably 10-12 people. We had lunch after the meeting, then had cake. Asia made a mess of her piece of cake. She ate a few bites, then decided to mash the rest in her hands. I guess she liked the feel of it. Then she pushed most of it onto the floor. Zach wasn't too fond of the cake either. He opted for the ice cream. All in all a fun time. Presents Asia got: clothes and first realistic baby doll from my parents, clothes from Marissa and a leap frog brand toy radio from Laura, books from Aunt Yvonne. Over the holidays, she also got some soap, shampoo, and a fuzzy praying bear from Ellen and a toy saxophone from Joyce.

1/13/2004 Welcome the new year! Asia started her first day of daycare today at Taylor Tots. She did pretty well. When I dropped her off this morning, Zach was also on the 1st floor. When there are less kids in the morning, sometimes the 2yr old and up gets put in the first floor with the 14 month to 2 year old group. The other half of the 1st floor of the daycare is partitioned off for the under 14 month group. When I took off her coat and boots, she went straight for the toys. She didn't cry when I left. I heard she did cry when she woke up from her naps. That's understandable. When I picked her up, she was in good spirits. She wanted to stay and play. She did very well for her first day. Contrary to Zach when he started day care. He was 2 then. A lot more aware of his parents leaving him.

12/8 She is now officially a walker. Almost 11 months. Had her try yogurt yesterday. Too much sugar, too late in the day. She had a tough time going to sleeo.

12/1 She's WALKING!!! As in, she is walking on her own. I'll walk around with her, holding her hand, and she'll pull her hand away and want to walk on her own. She'll also pull herself up and then let go from whatever it was she was holding on to, and just start walking away. Occasionally she starts walking away from me, gets scared, turns around and starts walking back. Walking at 10 months is pretty good. She also waves good bye. Knows how to bring a comb to her hair and a phone or play phone to her ear. Sound like a girl or what? Last week's doc appt - 18 pounds, gained 2lbs and 2 inches in 2 months.

11/18/03 Asia loves to walk. Not on her own yet but if you hold one hand. Or she scoots around holding on to the wall to furniture, etc. She would rather be up and walking or standing then anything else. She loves to play with her brother now. Before he was just something in her face and she would get annoyed. She's alot better with strangers or anyone other than her parents. She likes to eat graham crackers. The other day, she took a few steps unassisted! But as soon as she realizes that she's not holding on to anything, she freaks. Zach's 3rd birthday is coming up!

9/26/03 Asia's on meat now. She's tried beef baby food and likes it. She also has 2 teeth! They haven't totally come out, but they've broken through her gums. She doesn't crawl yet. She says ba, da, and uh-oh. She also likes it when you stand her up in her crib. She'll stand there for along time, talking, shaking the crib so the edge hits the wall and makes a loud sound, scoot from side to side. Sometimes she forgets that she can't stand, so she'll often let go of the crib with both hands. She's very bold. Also likes to hold crib railing with only one hand.

08/16/03 She's run through all the cereals and on now on to fruit and vegies. She had her first plane flight. Mom and Asia flew to Austin, TX. Also took her first swim today in the pool outside the house. She seemed to enjoy it!

07/19/03 Asia's on barley cereal now. She rolls over from back to front and front to back easily. She loves being in the exersaucer thing.

07/08/03 Took a summer vacation trip to Texas. Drove in our mini-van. Kids did pretty well on the way up since it was 16 hours to Dallas. Spent two nights there then drove 4 hours to Austin. The trip home was tough because of a tighter schedule and 20 hour drive. Both kids loved spending time with relatives. Since Asia rolls over a lot easier now, she tends to get stuck on her tummy at night or during naps and cries. She's getting better now with being able to lift herself up when on her tummy and less scared, but she still can't roll back over on to her back.

06/20/03 Asia tries rice cereal with a spoon for the first time. She did very well. No funny faces. No spitting. Most of it was even swallowed!

05/23/03 Asia rolled over from back to front.

05/20/03 Asia rolled on to her side to sleep. Zach has decided that he'll be the one to take his coat and hat off when he's good and ready. On top of that, he now insists in sleeping with his shoes and socks on. He also has some special meaning in keeping his towel wrapped around him after his bath even after he has his clothes on. The towel has to cover him completely.

05/10/03 Asia's sleeping through the night, mostly. Goes to bed around 8-9 PM, wakes up at around 5 AM. Last night, she went to sleep at around 10 PM and woke up at 7 AM! YEAH! Of course, she had quite a day yesterday. Went to the park with her dad and Zach. Then we all went to the lake area (12th street beach) for a picnic with friends.

04/19/03 Asia and Zach's spring break trip. Went to Columbus, OH. The change in environment was a bit too much for Asia. Zach had a blast, though. He went swimming, ate ice cream and cheeto'splayed outside, and watcked Nickleodeon. Today, Asia tried white grape juice. We also went to this place called Jeepers. It's just like Chuck E Cheese, only here it's in a better area and a bigger building. Zach rode on his first kiddie roller coaster with his dad. He said it was scary and he had to hold on to daddy.

03/21/03 2 month check up. Asia got 4 shots today. Poor girl. She enjoyed her walk to and from the doctor's office, though.

03/17/03 Back to work. Survived it so far. Though I didn't have any conference calls. Asia slept most of the morning. We'll see how it goes without a sitter yet.

03/09/03 Asia's first battle wound. hee hee! We're in the basement watching Tarzan on TV. Not sure what was in Zach's mind, but while Asia was lying on John's lap Zach took a swipe at her. Now she has 4 small cuts on her face.

03/01/03 Gave Asia a bath today - my first with her. My mom did the baths for the first few weeks. So she's been constipated for a day and a half. Guess when she decided to unload? Yup. During her bath. Thanks, Asia. Make the first bath memorable.

02/28/03 Long story short.. The OB doctor on Saturday decided to give me a c-section since I was 38 weeks already. Having the epidural put in was brutal. I hate needles being stuck into me. I freaked out the anesthesiologist by crying. He was wondering why I was crying like if he put the needle in wrong or something. I think everything just caught up with me. When they were prepping me for the C-section, the doc started to monitor Asia's heartbeat again and it dropped. All of a sudden, she said we had to do the C-section now. The nurse said the room wasn't ready, but Dr Patel said they couldn't wait. The anesthesiologist freaked out a bit again because I wasn't all numb yet. He had to rush it. He did a great job though. He kept soothing me and asking me to work with him in getting me all numb. By my participating, it made me relax in a sense. The c-section itself went by much more smoothly then with Zach, maybe because I knew what was involved. Also cuz the doctor would tell me that there was going to be a lot of pressure. Also at one point when I felt nauseous, the anesthesiologist quickly put in some drug to make the nausea go away. And of course, I teared up some when I heard Asia cry once she was out. And I think J did too! Anyway no problems with Asia - no jaundice. I spent 2 days recovering in the hospital and asked to be let out a day earlier cuz I missed Zach so much. Talking to him on the phone made me cry. Then Zach got the stomach flu, just in time for me to get it when I got out of the hospital. That was bad. My poor mom had to watch Asia all night.
So back to now... My mom went back home after staying here for 6 weeks. Z is in daycare. Asia's doing good.

01/30/03 Okay, so now that I'm awake enough to type out the whole story. Maybe someday, if this web site doesn't disappear, Asia and Zach will read this and see what it's like to bear children and all that suffering. :) Anyway... plus now that I'm using a keyboard without a BROKEN spacebar, I can type away. With the keyboard upstairs, I have to pound on the spacebar, which really slows down typing and my thought processes. Then I'm too tired to type out the story of Asia's birth. So here goes... Friday, 1/17, I go in for my usual NST and ultra-sound. Because I got there late, they decided to do my ultrasound first. I should have been weary of the change in routine. It's always NST first, then AFI. With Zach, I went in on a Tuesday for an NST, which wasn't my usual day but since I had a doc appt that day, why not get the test done. So with that unusual break in schedule with the NST for Zach, next thing I know I'm being admitted for decelerations and low amniotic fluid. Well, this time, the ultrasound looked fine. The fluid was a little lower than the past weeks (in the 9's), but still passable. Especially since I was 38 weeks. The radiologist noticed that Asia was in a funny position. Funny as in ha ha. She was head-down, with her rear end up to my left side and her feet all folder up to her nose. Like she was doing some funky stretch putting her legs past her head! So in the ultrasound, when looking at her head, you could also see toes! Anyway, so we go back to get her heartbeat monitored. As soon as they put me in the chair and start to hook me up, her heatbeat drops! All the nurses get all serious now. They ask me to change to this position and that, shake my belly, nothing. The heart beat stays low. So then they call triage and say they're sending me over. One of the nurses, Jackie, who is like 60 years old, gets a wheel chair and wheels me really quickly to the triage area where I then get undressed and put on the fun hospital gown. I had to ask if I was supposed to tie it in the front or back because I forgot. :) Then they hook me up to the monitor again. No food or drink or even ice chips allowed in case I have to do an emergency C-section. So I think I got there at around 5 PM. I was still there at 10 PM. Fun. In between, many doctors and nurses came to see me, since I was there during shift changes. I kept asking for ice chips, I finally got some at around 10:30 PM after they were sure that I was allowed to eat and drink. Then later a nurse found me some graham crackers and juice. She also had to stick an IV thing in my hand. Not actually hooked up to an IV, but just in case I need it later. I hate those things! It kills going into my hand! It's okay if you're getting a shot or blood drawn, but sticking this little white tube into your blood vessel? I'm not a doctor or nurse, so I don't know exactly what's done, except that it hurts and I hate it. I made the nurse nervous when she was about to insert it. I just remembered what it was like when I had the IV thing put in last time. So then I finally get admitted to a room. I call John to come and bring me some real food. More later..