Charlie - 2-week old update

Charlie had a quick doctor's appointment yesterday for a 2-week old weigh-in.  He gained almost a whole lb - from 7lbs 6oz to 8lbs 5oz in just 6 days!  I'm not exactly sure what the average weight gain is for a newborn but 15oz must have been a lot because even the nurse was shocked! So needless to say, Charlie is doing really well.

In the meantime, big brother Graham has graduated to a booster chair at home during mealtimes.

And yes, we are teaching him the flags of the world so he too can be a world traveler like his mommy and daddy :-)

We are still struggling to have Graham take a picture with Charlie.  Not exactly sure why he just won't do it! But he does ask to give kisses to Charlie before bedtime so I suppose that's better than picture-taking.

Graham has also been playing with the tablet a lot more lately. And somehow he's managed to purchase more items!  This email popped up while I was on my laptop this morning and Graham was sitting right in front of me playing with the tablet...

We were going to purchase more songs for this one App that he enjoys playing with/listening to, but looks like he beat us to it!

Graham laughing with Pierre the Parrot

After playing with the talking Tom Cat app for a few weeks, we decided to download Pierre - the talking Parrot.  And Graham just gets such a good laugh out of it!  Too cute!

Charlie's first week at home

So far, it's been quite stress-free this past week.  Probably because my in-laws are here to help out!  Pop-pop has been very helpful keeping Graham occupied and Charlie just seem to melt in Grandma's arms and fall asleep peacefully.

Here's Charlie at 1 week old...

We had Graham pick out a new toy for Charlie at the store and he came back with a sock monkey :-)

And Graham of course, came back with a toy for himself too!

It's amazing though how many diapers we are going through just in the first week.  Seems that it's quite normal for breast-fed babies to have runny poopy diapers.  And according to the lactation nurse, it will last about 6 weeks.  6 weeks!!! I couldn't believe it when she said that!
In any case, I think Charlie is going to end up bigger than his big brother Graham. He's been drinking so much more milk and check out the size of his feet!

I thought they looked bigger than Graham's at birth and I was right!  Charlie's foot prints are the ones on top:

Hopefully things will continue to go well once Grandma and Pop-pop leave. It's tough to be mad at a little thing like this one!

Welcome Charles Lee-An Pridgen!

Well, let's just say the doctor was right!  Baby Charles decided to come into this world early - on July 31, 2012 - at 38 1/2 weeks into my pregnancy.  My water didn't break this time like it did when I had Graham but after noticing some spotting early Tuesday morning and feeling contractions not long after that, we decided to pack everyone up in the car.  We dropped off Graham at a friend's house by 6am and made our way to the hospital.  By the time we arrived, I was already 6cm dilated and the nurse said that we weren't going anywhere!

We made sure to get the paperwork completed quickly for the epidural.  So glad we made it in time because here is me before the epidural - there was no way I was smiling for the camera!

And here's me after the epidural... all smiles as my lower half of my body starts to get numb:

By about 10:20am, the doctor broke my water (and almost made a mess!) and by 10:48am... Charles arrived into the world at 7lbs 14oz and 20" long:

And here's the happy daddy of now 2 little boys:

And oh, the doc said I had "halloween" socks on! I had to take a pic of that too :-)

 Happy parents!

The nurse had fun cleaning up Charles, especially washing his hair. Everyone comments on how much hair he has, just like when we had Graham.

All clean and fast asleep.  His Chinese name "An" actually means peace, so Charlie is definitely living up to his name when he was at the hospital. I would have to say otherwise when I put him in his crib on the first night at home!

In the meantime, big brother Graham had a great time visiting Mommy and Charlie (or Cha-e as Graham would pronounce it).  There were lots to eat! We start with jello...

Then, pecan pie...

And topping it off with a fortune cookie.

 The happy Lee-Pridgen family of 4! Say "cheese"!

Graham with his "I'm the Big Brother" sticker.

Here's Bobby holding both boys at the same time, for the first time:

Oh... more food for Graham!

Graham loved helping Daddy bring Charlie back to the nursery.  What a great little helper!

Daddy spoiled Mommy with non-hospital food - 2 days in a row!

The boys got dressed up to have professional pictures taken but this was as far as we got.  Oh well!

 Happy Mommy and new baby Charlie

The fun now continues with 2 boys! :-)

"Hmmm... what should I have from the pantry?"

Now that Graham has learned to open up the pantry door, he has also learned that he can get a better view of what's in the pantry by standing on the stool!

And after his cousin's visit recently, Graham has also discovered that you can get water from the fridge:

Pregnancy #2 Update - 38 weeks

Well... baby is still not here yet but my belly is surely getting bigger!

We were quite shocked to hear from the doctor over a week ago that I'm now actually 4cm dilated!  The doc seems to think that the baby is going to be out this Wednesday. We'll see if he's right!

Lau-Ye/Grandpa's visit

My dad has been in town for almost a week now.  He flew into Minneapolis (from Malaysia) where he spent  about 10 days there and last Wednesday, my sister and her 4-year old son Michael accompanied him to Tulsa.  Graham has been having a really great time playing with Michael!

We've also been busy picking tomatoes in the garden:

No, Graham was not eating a tomato since he does not like them.  So I'm not exactly sure why he has his hand to his mouth!  He does love saying cheese with his eyes closed though.

See what I mean?!  And when we asked him to open his eyes... he opened his mouth! Too funny!

I really wasn't sure what to cook for my dad while he was here, but after a trip to the Asian market, he was quite happy with his pork feet and tendon soup and a glass Guinness :-)

Bobby enjoyed the "aroma" in the kitchen as well... ;-)

... while I enjoyed a couple sips of Guinness.

I actually needed the Guinness to make Shepard's pie last night and my dad was available to drink the rest of the can up.  Guinness is high in Vitamin B anyhow... good for baby, right??? ;-)

All in all, despite the heat, everyone had a great time.  I think my dad really enjoyed spending time with his 2 grandsons.

Graham, our musician?

Graham has been "playing" the piano quite a bit these days. Well,... a lot more than I have!  And a couple of days ago, he was actually singing while playing!  You may need to turn up the volume on the video a bit, but he was singing "ba ba black sheep" and of course, being proud parent - Bobby and I were cheering on our little boy! :-)

By the way, Graham has successfully used the big potty a couple of times now.  Yay! :-)

Mischievous Graham

I was downstairs doing my own thing and Graham was really quiet upstairs.  So I decided to sneak up into his room to check out what he was doing. And there he was... stacking up Daddy's tubes of golf balls!

Somehow, he had managed to drag (or hopefully roll) Daddy's suitcase into his bedroom and he had unpacked everything out of the bag!
For whatever reason, he just loves to stack things:

A few days ago, it was tupperwares and this morning, it was this by the bedside table:

\

So mischievous! Maybe it has something to do with his new haircut!

Graham is also keeping himself occupied with other things around the house, like trying to wear and tie daddy's shoe laces:

There's also been lots of birthday parties to go to.  Last weekend was a fun one - it was at a pool/lagoon at a nearby hotel.

Daddy/Bobby was quite beat at the end of the day being in the water as well but Graham sure had a lot of fun!

Pregnancy #2 Update - 36 weeks

36 weeks!  Almost there! And after the doctor's appointment yesterday, he seems to think that the baby will most likely arrive early.  The baby is sitting very low and my cervix has really thinned out and I'm about 2cm dilated.  In any case, I do feel like I'm walking or more like waddling like a duck these days!  My belly does seem to feel bigger this past week and I am having more troubles sleeping at night!

When I saw this photo after Bobby had taken it, I was like "Wow, I'm huge!"  Although not quite as huge during this same time at 36 weeks when Graham was in my belly.  The ultrasound yesterday estimated this baby at 6lbs (compared to Graham at 7lbs 3oz at 36 weeks!)  The baby is just under that 50th percentile in weight, so hopefully delivery will be much easier this time. But you just never though. I've heard so many stories from several moms - these babies seem to just have their own plans!  Plus, it doesn't help when there is construction going on the freeway on the way to the hospital!

Graham does know that there is a baby is Mommy's belly and he even gets out his stethoscope to check baby's heartbeat.  He even knows the baby's name now! We'll save that announcement until the baby actually arrives :-)

Graham's new Lego

Graham's new Duplo Lego arrived in the mail yesterday.  We decided to get him some since he seemed to really enjoy playing with the Lego at our neighbor's house.  We also decided to keep all his legos in his bedroom.  His little table worked out really well and he really enjoys just stacking everything up!

And then, of course, the drill....

There's nothing more exciting than seeing something spin while turning the drill on!

When Bobby opened the door this morning to Graham's bedroom, he had turned on his little light and was playing quietly with his Legos.  He used to cry for Mommy to "Open door, please!".  So glad he's over that now!  Although, I did open up the door the other morning to a completely butt-naked Graham!  He had decided to take his pajamas AND his diaper off! Too funny!

Graham still likes playing with all the different games on our new tablet, but it's amazing how short his attention span is!  He switches games as quick as Daddy switches channels on TV!

But he looks so cute here sitting on the big chair, just high enough to see everything on the tablet :-)

Graham's funny voice

Graham started using his "funny voice" more often these days.  He normally does it when he's asking if you'd like to eat his food: "Do you want some?"  And more recently, he would just say "Mommy"... and I would say "Graham" or "Wen-wen" (his Chinese name)... and we would just keep going back and forth.  It's quite funny!

And he's got the funniest face too when it comes to saying "Cheese!"

I have no idea how/when he started squinting both eyes!