But actually its been pretty ok so far.Caring for a newborn has been like riding a bike. Having learned the process the first time, the experience has made us more efficient at gauging tiredness, hunger and figuring out Emma's needs as well as slowly adjusting her schedule to fit our needs (i.e., SLEEP). No problem! (so far atleast)
It definitely helped that we had Liang Mama to help us for the first 6 weeks. Thank goodness for her! The day she left, I cried. I feel such an attachment to her, maybe because she was there to help me when I needed the most. I came down with the mysterious fever and chills again around 6 weeks post partum, rendering me completely useless and helpless to Avery and the baby. AND Howard was gone on a business trip. It was pretty rough. Thank my lucky stars for Liang Mama in my life!
Avery is quite the big sister. She announces when Emma is crying, rushes to her to give her a pat and tell her "its ok Emma, I'm right here, don't cry!" and rushes around looking for a pacifier to give to her. We constantly have to tell her to be more gentle around her, because while her intentions are good, she has a tendency to smoosh the poor baby while giving her a hug, or get her germy hands and face all over Emma's face, she's just plain too loud when Emma needs to go for a nap. She's pretty good at playing with Emma in the bouncer, offering her a toy, talking to her, and then rocks the bouncer when Emma fusses. Its so cute!
There are times in the middle of the night or early morning, when the rest of the family are asleep, when I've just finished feeding her. I lay on the sofa outside her room and hold Emma's chubby, baby softness in my arms and feeling a sense of blissful happiness. I think my first time as a mom, I was too stressed out and sleep-deprived to enjoy this newborn phase. I'm not joking. I would even stress in my sleep, startling myself awake with nightmares of accidentally squishing Avery in my sleep even though she wasn't even on the bed, etc. Neurotic, that most definitely I was. But this time, it feels much easier, and I'm able to enjoy this phase much more. I will miss it.
For Easter, we had some brunch at our house and dressed the girls up. Thanks Auntie Tomi for Emma's cute little blue dress!
Avery got to be a flower girl last month for Rainbow and Stephen Ou's Wedding! Stephen is my in-laws' good friends Mark and Susan Ou's son, and when they asked way back two Christmases ago if Avery can be the flower girl, we said sure! Back then Avery was only around 17 months and not quite as aware and thus, not as shy around strangers. As we geared up for the wedding she was going through a shy and moody phase so we didn't really know what to expect. But on the day of the wedding, put that flower girl dress on and man was she a pro!
I was pretty uncertain whether not she would actually walk down the aisle, because well, she's two, and she gets in her moods sometimes. She kept wanting me to walk down with her, which I explained that I wasn't the flower girl, she was, and then she'd ask me again, and so on. We went through many rounds at the rehearsal, and one round of rehearsal the day of the wedding at the site so she knew what she had to do. When it was go-time, I gave the camera to Howard in case she was going to drag me down the aisle with her. It wasn't until I let go of her hand at the entrance that she just started walking by herself, down the aisle with all the smiling faces. Both the ringbearer nor herself were interested in holding hands, so you can see William the ringbearer in the back hehe.
I usually just zone out during sermons but this one was quite interesting. His point was that sometimes life will throw curve balls at you. But no matter how busy life got, how crazy life gets, to take some time on this day each year to go somewhere and reflect on their love and their commitment to each other.
It was a beautiful wedding. I don't know Rainbow and Stephen that well but I can tell that they are truly great people and they are a lovely match. Seeing them reminds me of when Howard and I were newlyweds ourselves, in love, with not a care in the world besides building a budding career and spending time together. How simple life was back then. Now things are much more complicated than that, and even finding time to spend by ourselves is a big task in itself! Our sixth anniversary is right around the corner
And then we got to the reception. It was PARTY TIME! There was a trio live band at the cocktail hour, playing acoustic versions of Smashing Pumpkins, Oasis, and more. It was awesome! Avery immediately got down to work, dancing up a storm.
She didn't want to take off the dress in the car. We had to wrestle her into her pajamas, and she then proceeded to pass out until the next morning, waking up at 5am extremely hungry because she was too busy to eat the night before. Oye
All in all, a wonderful day! The next day was Mother's Day! Cindy was down for the weekend and came over to make us all brunch. Delicious!
Emma turned 3 months yesterday and Avery will be turning the big 3 in a couple months. I still remember when Avery turned 3 months I thought it was the longest three months I had ever spent. I guess, the second time's the charm.
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