Runny nose

Aaron is having his first runny nose. It makes him so difficult to sleep. Breath is hard when using pacifier. As a result, he wakes up and cries a lot. A tough night is ahead.

first step

Aaron is trying to stand on his own and make his first step today. The best he can make is two or three small steps.

Guilty

I feel very guilty. I was lying in the living room right next to Aaron and browsing my phone. I thought Aaron was playing his favorite vtech Walker. I did know that my earbud fell out from my pocket. Aaron picked it and put into his mouth. He started to chew but I did not notice. Not until I was trying to feed his left dinner, he had been "chewing" and then spit out the earbud. It became two connected pieces already.

I am a terrible dad. I shall be more cautious in the future. Poor boy.

bubble

I have not been writing down Aaron's progress recently. He is still in transition to standing up on his own, though he can start to walk by holding wall. He still yet has no will to stand on his own. I tried to hold off and then he would fall. He would laugh and thought it was a game. It can be repeated again and again.

He is starting to bubble a lot, which is cute. For example, when he saw something behind the fence, he would crawl there and see and bubble a lot. What is he talking about? It can be annoying sometimes. For example when we are in grocery, he would start to shout or scream for some reason, usually complains due to impatience. I would have to move him around. Saying shush does not help.

Sleep in his own room

Aaron started in his own room last night. He still woke up a few times in the night but nothing was too abnormal.

Nest

whenever Aaron wakes up in the nights , Mom's arm is the peaceful harbor to rest in. It reminded me of my kid time. No matter how happy I played at others places, I wanted to go back home when it is late.

Sweet boy

It was an abrupt decision to go to the bellevue botanical garden with Aaron on a sunny Saturday afternoon. This was not his first trip there, he had already visited when he turned one month full.

Aaron was very sweet. He smiled to almost everyone walked by. As a result, he received a few social interactions from them. Good boy, I hope you could keep it up.

Soothing bigger Aaron

Aaron is having a little tough time in getting back to sleep on his own recently. He often woke up in the night and cried for help. Mom would be the only one he would like to turn to. Dad is useless and thus not helpful.

Mom will have a dental appointment tomorrow, and had to prepare to get to sleep earlier tonight. Dad gave another hopeless try. It took me back to those nights that held Aaron in my arms and waved my body back and forth to sooth him. He now became so big that I could not completely hold him and waving/swinging does not work anymore. He cried hard till he had almost waken up. He then started to look around, either looking for mom or chasing light spots. I held him in my arm but upright, rocking and walking around in the bedroom. I sang the lullaby that I often sang to him, because I think this would be something that he would resonate (like in Mom's arms). After a while, he seemed soothed and I felt certain that he would not cry. I laid him back to the crib, gave one of my finger to his hand. This feeling took me back to the early days with him again. He was peaceful and yawned, but then sat up for a while. I held him up and tried the same procedure. He felt asleep in my arms, then I could transfer him back to the crib.

He is growing up and needs more emotional supports now. All those old physical techs (e.g. pacifier) can no longer be the all time life-saver.

How do different animals sound

Aaron is getting smarter. He loves me asking Google how different animals sound. We plays this a lot when feeding. He also laughs to some jokes due to silly sounds now.

Devil and angel

Tough guy in the nights

Mid-autumn

In order to celebrate the first mid-autumn of Aaron, we took him out for dinner also for the first time. He had been OK when sitting down, but soon got frustrated.

The situation later got worse. He was very curious thus stared at different people around. I could tell that he was not enjoying. At some time, another baby started crying. This triggered something inside Aaron. He started crying hard. He cried so hard that his face was full of tears. I never saw so many tears on him.

I tried to entertain him by waving him. He would stop a while but soon cried again. This became a positive feedback to other babies in the restaurant. Other babies would follow to cry and he was influenced again.

We had to box everything and brought him back home as result. He was soon calmed. Not ready yet, Aaron!

Sit up in seconds

Aaron can sit up so quickly that there is not enough time to shoot video. He can sit steadily most of the time, but fell on his back two times. He did not cry. A strong boy.

Today I asked Google mini to read story when feeding him formula. This made him calm and focused. I now know why I always have earbud on.

Officially sit up

It is official. He can sit up today now.

Sit up

Accidentally Aaron sat up this evening. He was trying to turn around but sat up at the end.

Thunderstorm

Aaron had his first thunderstorm in this evening. He seemed unaware of the lightening and thunders outside, and was peacefully crawling and playing his toys. I felt the responsibility of sheltering this boys from the storms in the next couple of years.

We started bed reading since tonight. It seemed very helpful in making him sleeping. We have stopped using pacifier, because he showed revision by taking pacifier out to play. But we tried again tonight when he cried in sleep. It magically made him sleep again. If this will last, he will turn back to a perfect angel in the night.

Fell from bed

For the record, Aaron fell off from our bed last last night. Mom put him aside on the bed, which has been an effective way of sleeping Aaron. In the dark, Aaron crawled to the edge and fell..

He has been making progress in sitting and crawling. He is very close to make it. However he is turning more vulnerable as well. For unknown reasons, he would grieve often for care and help. Let's hope this is part of his world exploration and things will be well soon.

"Hey Google"

I wonder what "Google" means to Aaron. He knows that small round box would glitter and respond to us when we say "hey Google" following with arbitrary words. He would always stare to the sound source when he hears.

So now "hey Google" becomes magic word to "calm" him down. For example, when he was struggling with being teethbrushed, Mom saying "hey Google" would stop his movement. We could not tell from his expression whether this is fear or curiosity or anything. He also seems aware of that box speak in a different way from parent's daily conversation. So he shows difference in responding English and Chinese.

Hello 8th month

Aaron is getting into his 8th month. He for the first time had beef, mixed with kale and apple.    We together went to Meydenbauer beach park today.

YAY

I have been a lazy parent. This idea of blogging Aaron's growth has been long but I have never made it happen. I am going to use this as a private space to log what just happened to my little one. I will keep it simple so that it can last.

YAY is in short for his name. Yaochong is the combination of a high peak and peaceful wide water, which is a sketch of his born place - Seattle. Also Yao indicates integrity and firm, and Chong means calm and generous. This is our best wishes to him. Aaron is then derived from the Chinese name, because it means high mountain.

Aaron has been able to make two sounds to express so far. One is "Mmmm" (very close to Mom). It happens when he was sad and needy, particularly he was hungry. Another one is "Buu". He now used it a lot when he refused to finish his bottle or feed. I think he learned this word by mimicing us.

It just happened today that he can start to say something very similar with his name, Aaron, now. Aaron recently showed special interest to English, thus Weiwei often chats with Google for teasing Aaron. When she is brushing Aaron's teeth, which Aaron could not enjoy, she also say a few random English sentences. This would greatly amuse Aaron so that he is cool to take whatever Weiwei does. I joined the conversation today, thus said a few times "Aaron". The magic happened that Aaron repeated a few times sounds very close to "Aaron".

We have been following the principle of always responding to Aaron's nonsense "expressions". We hope he would feel engaged in his "conversations" with us. I am looking forward to see more this kind of talent in Aaron. I feel he would be able to speak "Aaron" soon. Hmm, English does seem easier to sound than Chinese.

P.S.:
(1) It seems many of people's expression originates from baby's behavior. Shaking head to say no shall start from shaking head to avoid a bottle/food feed.
(2) This might also explain the way a child communicates with parents. It starts from simple loud cry, intense reaction to decline as a baby.