365 Days of Chloe

Chloe’s birthday had come and gone. With the blink of an eye, our baby is now 1 year old. Day by day, week by week, month by month, this year went by very quickly. But looking back at her earlier pictures, some of them seem like they were taken eons ago. There is indeed that mixed feeling of fast and slow, long and short. While her look hasn’t changed much, some features have changed slightly, i.e. her cheeks are smaller, her hair is fuller, etc. If not for pictures, I didn’t even notice these changes taking place.

Speaking of pictures, I completed my mission to take pictures of her everyday until she turned one. I decided to take on this project shortly before she was born. The inspiration came from a newspaper article I read which showcased a man’s project of the same nature, except he took a picture of his baby in the same pose everyday to show the progression of his growth. I didn’t want to subject myself to requiring the same props everyday therefore I simply decided I would take any picture of Chloe, no matter what pose or clothing she wears. Some days this was fun and easy to do. I mean who doesn’t want to take cute pictures of their baby? But other days it was a drag to think of yet another pose because I didn’t want to repeat what I did yesterday. After 365 days, I’ve accumulated thousands of pictures of her. My computer runs smoothly everywhere else except for when I’m in the folder that holds her pictures. There are so many files in that folder that simply being in there bogs down the computer’s processor!

When I first began the project, I intended to select a picture to represent each day, print out 365 pictures, and put them all in a traditional photo album. Well, all that have changed now that the project is done. For one thing, it was difficult to select only one picture per day. Most days had multiple good pictures of her and I didn’t have the heart to eliminate them down to just one. Secondly, the idea of placing prints in an album didn’t sound appealing anymore because I would’ve had to manually label each picture with the corresponding day and add captions. That just sounded too cumbersome to me.

Those of you who follow my Facebook have seen my daily pictures of Chloe and their corresponding captions. While I was diligent in uploading these pictures to FB on a fairly timely manner, I was slacking off in collecting the files for the final printing. I wasn’t joking when I posted this on my status:
"Dear FB: Can you make my life easier and let me order prints of my Photos so I don't have to re-upload them onto another photo site in order to get them printed?"

So what did I end up doing in terms of getting this project printed? I ended up creating a photo book. A photo book allows me to arrange the pictures and add captions more easily than loose pictures inserted into an album or scrapbook. Still it took me almost 2 weeks of spending about 2-3 hours per day to select the pictures, arrange them in daily order, upload them, arrange them into the book, and add captions.

Today I am proud to say the book is completed and ordered. I am breathing a huge sigh of relief that this year-long project is done and put to rest. I’ll breathe an even bigger sigh of relief and satisfaction when I receive the book and see that it comes out as nicely as I hope it will come out. (Fingers are crossed that it will come out nicely.)

Here are the cover and last pages of the photo book for all to peruse prior to the arrival of the finished product.

Cover:


Last page:


P.S. Don’t ask me what I will do for my second baby (if and when I have a second baby). I haven’t the slightest idea!

ADHD

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40113826/ns/health-kids_and_parenting/?gt1=43001

A new research says 1 in 10 kids in the U.S. is diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. This is a 22% increase since 2003. The researchers point to more awareness and better screening as possible causes for the jump, not necessarily because more kids than before are getting this disorder.

This is one of those controversial illnesses that some people believe is legitimate while others believe is just the pharmaceutical industry’s way of selling more drugs to boost their bottom line.

I do believe ADHD is for real. I do believe drugs can help alleviate the symptoms for those who truly have the disorder. But are there really that many legitimate cases out there? Are doctors quicker to diagnose this disorder now than before because it’s more in their front burners? One reason for the increase in diagnosis is awareness right? Then did the power of suggestion come into play?

Kids will be kids and they will be active. To some, they may even be overactive. Heck, last night I got all sweaty and exhausted playing with my almost-1-year-old. She kept crawling and cruising around to touch this and that and then back to this again. I was lucky if she stayed on any one item for more than 3 seconds. Did it cross my mind that she may have ADHD? When I couldn’t catch my breath, yes! But all the other times I’m just glad that she’s doing what she's supposed to be doing - actively check out what this vast world has to offer her.

Graco Stoller Recall

Here is a link to read about this recall.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39750625/ns/health-kids_and_parenting/?GT1=43001

Two thoughts:

(1) The deaths occurred between 2003 and 2005. It's already 2010! It took them that long to issue a recall??? Why even bother? Are there a lot of protocol to follow and/or red tape to cut through? If so, they have to get rid of all that and take more immediate action.

(2) Entrapment and strangulation can occur if babies are not strapped in properly. Put another way, if parents DO THEIR JOB and strap their babies in properly this will not occur. This is another case of irresponsible parenting leading to disastrous outcomes. I feel sorry for Graco for having to take accountability for bad parents who don’t pay attention to the safety of their own kids.

Preschool

Preschool? Really? Do I have to start the process of looking and applying for a preschool for Chloe already? I have no idea where to start! I have never felt so lost before. Should I look in our city? Should I look in SF? Do I HAVE TO look in our city? Is there a list I can look into? What should I look for when I go on a tour? What questions should I ask?

Does anyone have any tips to offer? Please!

A poor man's house addition

We did a poor man's home addition. Well, sort of. The idea was to add covered space to our house for Chloe's upcoming 1st birthday party. We have a lot of guests to invite but we have a dinky little house. If her birthday was in a warmer season our guests can simply hangout in the backyard. But being in late November, we are destined to deal with unfavorable weather.

The options we have for her birthday party are:

(1) have it at some restaurant with the venue and food all taken care of. But this can be impersonal and expensive.

(2) rent an indoor space somewhere and bring in the food. Space rental is a big one-time charge. We will have to pay this money again next time we have another party.

(3) have the party at our house and somehow increase covered space to enhance the comfort of our guests in case the weather doesn't cooperate.

We are opting for option 3. If we find a good solution to adding covered space for people to gather, we can reuse it every time we have any sort of party. Let's face it, just Chloe's birthdays itself will forever be during fringe weather season.

So we set out to look for a canopy to turn a portion of our abundant outdoor space into pseudo indoor space to shield people from the elements. At first we had in mind a temporary canopy to put up when we need it and take down when we don't. But while shopping at Costco, Randy came upon this steel frame canopy meant for long term use. As you can see in the picture of the packaging, it is sturdy enough to use as a long term carport. It comes with heavy duty steel frame and coverage on all 4 sides in addition to the roof. This looked much more appealing than the temporary ones with aluminum frame and no "walls". Our area can get really windy so the 4 walls will be useful to block out the wind. This seemed like the perfect solution for our needs.


The only thing we had to consider was the rather permanent nature of this addition. Do we want this huge 10'x20' structure to be added to our backyard on a long term basis? How obtrusive will it be? How much natural lighting will it block off from our house? After some consideration, we decided to give it a try. We can always return it if it doesn't work out.

I am happy to report we do not plan on returning it. It turned out even better than we imagined. The design of the product is impeccable. We were more than amazed as we were assembling it. The ingenuity, the design, the quality, the ease of assembly all exceeded expectations. It's been up 3 days now and it is standing strong. It definitely fulfills all of our needs.

In addition, the dimensions of the canopy are so perfect it is as if it was custom made for our house. Because of it's perfect size, it does not feel nor look obtrusive at all. Since the roof is at a triangular slope, even though it butts up right next to our kitchen and bathroom windows, it still manages to funnel a good amount of sunlight into the house. Hence our concern of it blocking off natural lighting to our house is a non-concern.

On top of that, the cost of the canopy is a mere $200. $250 if you add the cement blocks we added to anchor it down. A $250 poor man's house addition. That's something worth blogging about.


Exterior view with awning closed.

Interior view from the garage.

Too early for punishment?

I punished Chloe this morning. She refused to finish her milk so I sat her in her highchair and confined her in it without toys while we got ready for work.

Lately she hasn’t been drinking all her milk. She would gobble up all her solid meals but would always leave an ounce or two in the bottle. I grew up with a mother who made me eat all my food before I was allowed to leave the dinner table and attended an elementary school whose cafeteria staff didn’t allow any student out to the yard to play until they finished their lunch. Not finishing your food was a big no no in my childhood. And don’t forget the cliché “with so many people starving in this world, it is a sin to waste food”. All this shaped me into a parent who will make sure her kid finishes her meals.

During her 10+ minutes of confinement, she never cried but she did moan and groan to be let out. She raised her arms and pleaded for freedom each time Randy or I walked passed but ignored her. When I finally freed her, I picked her up and told her in a warm voice, “Mommy had to punish you for not eating all your milk. You need to be a good girl and finish your milk okay?” She babbled her usual “dah dah wah wah” in response.

That led me to wonder…does she understand punishment at this age? Are my efforts to impose a punishment and follow with a verbal explanation still too advanced for a 10-month-old infant without language capabilities? Is it cruel to punish a 10-month-old who doesn’t know right from wrong? Does she know right from wrong?

Comparison Photos

It's not that we need to prove she is our child. Neither is it that we need to verify the hospital gave us the correct child to go home with. Comparison photos like these just melt your heart and amaze your mind that you indeed brought an offshoot of yourselves into this world.

Here I Am Once Again

My abandoned blog...I am so sorry. I abandoned you after I became pregnant with my now 10 month old baby. One would think I would report to you more often during my pregnancy to document the progress. What with the fatigue associated with pregnancy and all the things you have to do to prepare for the arrival of the most wonderful gift ever bestowed upon you that took away all the time and energy to keep a blog active. Here I am, returning 1 year and 7 months after my last post.