We have a Christmas tree! We have a Christmas tree!

I am all about holiday spirit. Until last year, Albert and I have never spent a Christmas together. When were dating, we spent Christmas with our respective families. Two years ago, our first Christmas after getting married - we spent apart. Al had to go to California for some job interviews, and I flew off to Korea. Last year, of course was our first Christmas as a family (including a brand new Izzie). However, I was completely distraught because it seemed like nursing was heading towards a downward spiral, and I was not myself.

This year, however, we will be spending Christmas together, and we'll be doing it right. Yesterday, I moved some things around the apartment, so that I can have space to finally set up my very first tree. I of course, grew up having a tree every year growing up, but this was MY first tree. Al and I took a quick jog to 110th and Broadway and we picked out the perfect tree for our family and lugged it back.

Right after we lighted the tree:


Izzie's reaction:


Our tree after all the ornaments went up. I had bought a lot of base ornaments a couple years ago after Christmas. Yesterday, we went out to get some starter ornaments. It'll be a proud Rah-Chang tradition to choose ONE ornament for each year. I can't wait to see what Izzie will choose next year:


I will have to bust out my SLR and try to get better pictures of our tree.

Sleeping Baby

One of my favorite things is to just watch Izzie sleep. When Izzie is awake, she is just such a different baby from when she was first born. But when she's sleeping... she still looks like the sweet newborn she was when we first brought her home. Sometimes, if Izzie wakes up early in the morning, we'll bring her to bed with us, and she was just so sweet sleeping next to Albert - I had to take a few shots.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

Well, it's a day late, but I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. Sophie made an INCREDIBLE meal; really, truly sublime. The menu was Turkey Roulade, Roasted Root Vegetables, Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, Cranberry Sauce, and an Apple Sour Cream pie from the Little Pie Company. Thanks to the Tom's for sharing the day with us. Here are some photos from our day:


Sophie preparing the Turkey Roulade.


The "before" photo.


Izzie was a great kid for us. We were busy with the food, so we left her alone in the jumperoo for a good hour or so, and she came through for us.


The "after" photo.


Stranger Anxiety.


The spread.

Here is a brief video tour of the food:


And finally, one last photo (minus Chris):


Happy Thanskgiving everyone, and happy black friday!

Booboo, you're standing!

Sophie's version: As I am working in the living room, I hear Albert yell "SOPH! GET IN HERE RIGHT NOW!" I have to admit, I was slightly alarmed - I honestly was worried that she injured herself or something. I rush into the room, and I see that she pulled herself into standing position. I have to admit - I was kind of enjoying the fact that she was on the slow side in terms of gross motor skills, but there is no turning back now. I really really have to start to baby proof.

Albert's version: So it's just a normal afternoon, except we're both home today because Sophie's working from home and my classes have been cancelled, and I'm giving Izzie an afternoon sippy cup. Out of nowhere, she slaps the bottle away, flips over, and starts crawling toward the headboard. And then, without any hesitation at all, she just grabs on to the ledge and stands up. It all happened so quickly that I hardly had time to react. So I yell for Sophie to come in, and Izzie repeats the feat a couple times to applause and cheers. Great...more chances to fall and hit her head now. As if it wasn't hard enough already to keep track of everything she was doing.

Pre-Bedtime Shennanigans

So with our November plan, we're inevitably going to have a few days that are cheapies where we cop out by uploading cute videos. This is one of those days. Enjoy!

Reading the Times...

Yesterday, we had a very relaxing morning of reading the weekend NYT and chilling in the lobby of our building with Izzie. I actually read to her from the paper, something she responded to by hollering at the top of her lungs. Silly girl - this girl, she has opinions about our economy also!

Airy, Fresh Day!

Today Izzie woke up with a slightly red bum. She's never had a diaper rash (yet) in her life, so I was slightly alarmed to see the redness. It didn't even look like a rash, but just to be extra safe, we decided that she needed some diaper-free time this morning. Maybe she'll be horrified later when reading this (since I will be immortalizing this blog by turning it into a book) - but seriously, how can you go through childhood without having a couple naked bum photos?

Sittin' Like a Big Girl

I've noticed how MUCH Izzie looks like a big kid these days. She has places to go, things to see - she is not happy being constrained in your arms. The world is just full of things to poke and prod. I love it when she sits like she is above - its usually when she's looking at something intently, and from the behind she really does look all grown-up. You can't even see her bald spot that much anymore! Of course, Koreans would say that sitting like that will make your legs all crooked.. .. but crooked or not, ain't she cute?

Bath Time With Izzie

I still (vaguely) remember the time when Izzie used to absolutely hate baths. The minute we'd start undressing her, she would just scream and scream (probably because she was cold). However, those are all distant memories, and now she absolutely loves taking baths. She also used to cry in protest once we took her out (probably because she still wanted to play), but now I think she gets zen-ed out from her baths. She becomes super calm when we take her out, and she just waits there waiting to be massaged and lotion-ed up. She's definitely my girl - she loves being pampered!

Izzie, You're 11 Months Old Today!

(Go Bears!)

Dearest Izzie,

Wow! You are 11 months old today! The next time we do this, you'll be 1 year old. This week, the weather started getting really cold. Like really, really cold. And it reminded us of last winter, when we were preparing our home for your timely arrival. Winter is really your season now; you own it. When we get chills, we think of the time you were born. And it's an exciting time too, because so many thing happen this time of year. This past month you had your first halloween, but next month, we'll have thanksgiving and your birthday, and soon after that, Christmas too!

OK, on to your developments. You learned how to clap, raise your hands, wave bye-bye, and turn your hands (twinkle, twinkle little star!) on cue. Before you were imitating us, but now you can respond to us. You love peek-a-boo, and not just watching us do it. You like taking blankets and pulling them over your head, then revealing your beautiful smile. You have the most adorable laugh in the world. Your voice is coming out too. We think you'll be a very cute talker. Grandma thinks you have a beautiful voice, and she should know, since she's a professional classical vocalist. You're a dancer too! Well, a shaker, at the very least. You like to wiggle side-to-side when you see us doing it, or even when you just hear some music.

You're officially a carnivore! You're first foray into the animal kingdom was ground chicken breast. Mommy chopped it up into tiny little pieces with the food processor, and mixed it into your butternut squash. You also LOVE yogurt. Morning yogurt breakfast times are your special times with Daddy. You're one of the few things in the world that can drag him out of bed in the mornings. We also started putting cheese in your food, and you love it, because it adds so much more flavor.

You're definitely getting stronger and much more mobile. You can almost pull yourself up on the crib. You like reaching for things way above your head, and are starting to grab ledges. We can see that you have a lot of determination, and that has resulted in a few minor bumps to the ol' noggin. But we can tell that you're cautious too, compared to other kids your age. You eye a challenge and contemplate it first, before proceeding with action. Your new favorite toy is the Fisher Price Cruise 'n Crawl, but your real favorite toy is the iPhone. We want you to have some comfort items, because you're definitely getting stranger anxiety. We get paged by the church nursery quite often these days!

Well, I hope you enjoyed reading about your developments this month. We definitely enjoyed being there. October was a slow month for the blog. But this month, we're implementing our November challenge: we're going to try to make a post every day, because there's so much to record. Mommy's getting sad that you only have one month left in your first year. After that, you won't be an infant anymore. So make it count, booboo! We can't wait to see what's next. Just for you, to end this month's rendition, we thought we'd write you a few 11-month haikus.

Isabella Chang
You Want to Touch Everything
But We Deny You

Why Do We Do So?
Ready to Discover? Ouch!
Bumped Your Head Again.

Crawling and Standing
Are Your New Developments
You Will Walk Too Soon

Babble and Babble
Greetings You Uttered Last Week
Hello! Hello! Bye!

Playing with Remote,
Almost Recorded Spongebob.
Sigh, You Silly Girl!

Eleven Quick Months.
The Moments Went By Too Fast.
We Love You, Izzie.

Love,
M+D

Running

So lately.. I've started to run! Yup! I still think its a tad boring, but you can't beat exercise that is virtually free. You just grab your running shoes and go. I was never a runner - I always preferred other forms of cardio. However, when I finally canceled my gym membership, and I started to huff and puff going up and down the stairs of the subway, I knew it was time to exercise again. About a couple weeks ago, I hit 2 miles for the first time in a very long time. It was such an accomplishment! And now, I can run up to 2.5 miles. People ask me when I have the time to run, and the truth is... I really don't. My goal for now is to go running 2 times a week, and that requires planning on my part. One of my favorite ways is to get up early on the mornings, feed Izzie breakfast, drag Albert out of bed and all go out together. We don't have a jogging stroller, so I run, while Al pushes Izzie in the stroller. For now, I don't really have a goal - I want to take it really slow.. but I have to say, it feels good! I feel... healthy!

Izzie is clearly more happy than Albert at the prospect of an early morning outing. I didn't even change her out of her PJs:


On this particular day, we saw the Life on Mars tv show shooting:

Bed Head

One way that Soph and I know for sure that Izzie has more hair now.... she gets bed head in the mornings! Check out the mohawk.







*Sophie edit: I can NOT wait till she has more and I can start putting girly barrettes in her hair or something... so that people would stop telling me how cute my son is.

Hello!

On Sunday, the three of us were enjoying a nice quiet afternoon together. Albert and I were doing our own thing and Izzie was on the floor crawling around, having a blast. All of a sudden, she pushes herself up, looks up and blurts out "Hello!"

That is right - clear as day, "Hello!"

Al and I immediately looked at each other, shocked! She can already say mom and dad, and she has imitated sounds before... but this is the first time she has ever said a word out of nowhere.

At first I thought it was completely random. She babbles a lot, and maybe she just happened to blurt out two discernible syllables. But the more I think of it, I don't think it was that random. We do say "Hello!" to her a lot - and even though we didn't say it to her in that moment, I am now convinced that she remembered the sounds and was repeating it back to us.

Sigh.. she really is growing up. I can't believe in a years time I might be able to carry on a conversation with her - I can't wait! Think about all the things she has to say!

PSA: Izzie Would Like to Remind You to Get Out and Vote Today!