Kian's First Christmas

Kian loves what "Santa" brought him for his first Christmas!


The day before, Kian smiles in anticipation of what's in his brand new Christmas stocking.


Dressed in his "Baby's First Christmas" candy cane outfit from his nana, Kian poses with his parents at Uncle Devin's and Aunt Teresa's house for the traditional Christmas Eve lobster feast.


Three-year-old cousin, Finnegan, props up Kian for a few photos. Lochlann is off to the side enjoying his new fire truck sticker book.

Kian's bib reads, "It's the night before Christmas and guess who's awake?" And yet....

...there comes a time when you just have to give in. We wonder what he's dreaming of this Christmas. Certainly not a white Christmas; that's a reality this year in Seattle!

Merry Christmas to all our friends and family who still keep up with our blog! :)
Happy New Year!

Kian's First Snow Day

Yesterday, we bundled up Kian in a fleecy snowsuit and introduced him to below-freezing temperatures. As you can see in this family photo, he loves it.


Eventually, he warmed up to the situation... Somewhere in that navy blue marshmallow man suit is our son. In the background, the Airboard Classic -- our awesome inflatable sled -- lies patiently awaiting the rush of jetting down the gnarly hills of West Seattle.


Lilly O'Claire offers to play Santa for Kian before their parents went on their sledding adventure. Kian says: "All I want is... to get out of this bulky snow suit!"


One of my favorite pictures of 2008. A bit too late for the photo Christmas card unfortunately!

Four Months Old!

Kian turns 4 months old today! At his well-baby visit, we found out that he weighs 16 lb., 2.5 oz., is 25.5 inches tall -- both in the 75th % -- and is in the 50% for head circumference. He is very healthy and gives us plenty of smiles and babbles. More updates to come.... Mama is back to work (today is the 3rd day back) and we usually head out the door at 7:15 to go to grandma's house.

Thanks for reading, and remember to compare this photo to the previous three taken with this teddy bear on the 10th of the month!

Kian's First Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! Here is a picture of Kian before his food coma (Does tryptophan transfer to breastmilk?)! Poor little guy is suffering from his first cold, but he managed to smile a little bit for mama holding the camera. Next year he'll get to truly enjoy Grandpa Matt's delicious brownsugar-walnut yams (perhaps without the walnuts). Thanks Auntie Teresa and Uncle Devin for the cute bib!

Photos Taken During the Past Week

Kian wears his "Going Places" onesie from his friends on the east coast, the Apfaltrer twins. The only thing is that he is seated here in a swing and isn't really "going places" -- just back and forth!


Kian takes a nap every couple of hours during the day. Eating often and observing his surroundings while being carried around is exhausting, apparently!

Kian loves giving his dad smiles. Here we are resting on a bench during a walk at the beautiful Lincoln Park in West Seattle on a sunny autumn day.

All weekend, we celebrated Althea's achievement of becoming a National Board Certified Teacher! In the picture above, we are celebrating at the home of good friends, and in the picture below we drank more champagne the following night, but this time with family at our own home. Cheers!

3 Months Old!

Kian is 3 months old today! We had an early morning photo shoot with his bear and Boppy so that you can see how much he's growth since last month. He's wearing just a onesie so that you can even check out the difference in plumpness of his arms and legs! Check out his 2-Month-Old blog entry to compare. Notice that his 1-month-old photo shows that Kian is barely bigger than this teddy bear!

He now weighs a whopping 15 lb., 6 oz.! How has he grown in other ways during the past month? Kian is smiling, cooing, and babbling so much more now and lets us know what he wants in his own way. He gives one or two loud calls/squawks when he wants to be picked up, and when we're carrying him around, he'll kick his legs when he's tired of us standing in the same place. "Move on and show me more!" Kian is just beginning to grab things that we put in front of them, but he doesn't hold on for long. A soft panda rattle, for instance, is brought towards his mouth and then falls to the side after a few attempts to gnaw on its ear or nose. He is now an expert at sucking his left thumb, which seems to help him fall asleep. Within the past month, Kian has shown interest in listening to us read him stories and actually focuses on the pictures on the page now. Some of his favorite books are "Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?" and "Haiku Baby".

I finally took the time to figure out how to post a video to this blog, but it ended up being sideways, without sound, and accompanied by the message"currently unavailable at this time" upon pressing 'play'! Guess I have more to learn! I will try again later to post the video taken today of Kian studying the socks on his feet for the first time. For now, here the still image of the scene:

Happy Halloween!

Kian didn't have a great time getting into this jack-o-lantern costume, but he stopped fussing for a few minutes so that we could snap this shot!

Happy Halloween from the Chow/Liddell Household!

Getting in the Halloween Spirit

Kian dressed up in his bat t-shirt (one of many cute hand-me-downs from his cousins) so that he could get in the halloween spirit for a couple of pumpkin carving parties this past weekend.

Pictured here from oldest to youngest babies are: Lilly, Kian, Elliot, and twins Ella & Nate (with mommies Chris, Althea, Megan and Karin). The four on the right were born within 16 days of each other!

We never did get Kian into that jack-o-lantern costume that he's sitting on. But hopefully we will on Halloween night when we dress him up to give out candy to neighborhood trick-or-treaters.

Tummy Time

This photo of Kian on his "Boppy 'Entertain Me' Playgym" (thanks Leanne & David!) was taken a couple weeks ago on October 14th.

2 Month Well-Baby Visit

At Kian's 2-month "well-baby doctor's appointment" today, we found out that my estimation/ prediction of his weight (14 lb., 3 oz.) was pretty much accurate! His current weight is 14 lb., 2.5 oz., which puts him in the 93rd percentile!! He is in the 60th% for height at 23 1/4 inches, and 40th% for head circumference. Kian received a few immunization shots, which was no fun at all. Here he is in his baby papasan chair, cashed out from the good cry. Hopefully that infant Tylenol is kicking in.

Yesterday was a happier day. Here are photos from brunch at AmaAma and trying out the new "Babyhawk" carrier....

More photos from Oct. 10th, when he turned 2 months old....

Two Months Old!

Same baby boy, same bear... See how Kian has grown in one month! (The photo above was taken today and the one below is from Sept. 10th)

Kian has his 2-month check-up on Monday, so we'll be sure to post his new stats then. Any predictions on Kian's current weight? My estimation is 14 lb., 3 oz.

He has nearly outgrown the "up to 3 mo." clothing we own. There are several onesies and sleepers that he has only had a chance to wear once! Many of the labels state that the upper weight range is 12.5 lb., which he has definitely surpassed. I know that all babies grow at different rates, but we did not expect for Kian to be the size of a 3 month old at 6 weeks!

During the past month, Kian has begun to offer REAL smiles, often letting out a little giggle in response to something we do that amuses or delights him. When he coos, we imagine that he wants to tell us what's on his mind. Both of these new behaviors melts our hearts and fills us with joy. Last weekend Kian discovered how to bring his hand to his mouth, after many minutes of accidentally stamping his own forehead or missing his face completely. Grandparents, Matt & Gei, great aunt Madeline, cousin Jolina, Papa Ryan, and I were all there to witness his accomplishment, and we even caught it on the camcorder. With this new skill, Kian can "self-soothe"... or perhaps he does it because he enjoys the slight cheesy taste of the milk that has dried on his fist. Either way, we are proud of him.

Sleep At Last!

I've gotten used to being in a constant hazy, sleep-deprived state with Kian waking up every 2-3 hours to eat at night (meaning that I only sleep in 45 min. - 2.5 hour chunks of time...and that's if I'm lucky and do not get woken up by Kian's gas-induced grunts and mid-sleep fussing in between feedings). I've heard from friends that their babies, who are a few months older than Kian, were sleeping through the night, and while I knew that our son would get to that point eventually, it seemed like it would take forever. I've wondered when I'd get to sleep for at least 4 hours straight. Is that too much to ask?!

Well, this morning I feel as if I'm on top of the world because Kian slept for 5 hours straight and so did I!!! He fell asleep after a late night feeding at 11:30 p.m. and the next time I looked at the clock it was about 4:30 a.m.! I pretty much leaped out of bed with joy to go feed him and considered blogging immediately after putting him back down at 5:10 am because I wanted to share the great news with the world....I GOT 5 HOURS OF UNINTERRUPTED SLEEP! Instead, I went back to bed and slept for a couple more hours. Hallelujah! I figured this monumental event deserved its very own post on our blog. Let's hope that the improved sleeping situation is here to stay for awhile!

Kian's "Red Egg & Ginger Party" (traditional Cantonese celebration for babies near their one-month birthday....in our case 2 months) was this past Sunday, and once we get more photos from the event I will post a separate blog entry to describe the celebration.

For now, here are a few pictures of Kian taken within the past week and a half or so....

Growing and Changing

For the past couple of weeks, we have been focusing on the not-so-glamorous side of baby life: acid reflux, cradle cap, and baby acne. Kian took a trip to the doctor's office on September 22nd to get checked out for reflux and had a chance to get back on the scale. In these most recent photos taken today, there is clear evidence that this boy has been eating well! Note the double (triple?) chin.



For those who are interested, the progression of Kian's weigh-ins is as follows: At birth on 8/10/08 he weighed 8 lb.... At his first doctor's visit on 8/14 we saw that he dropped down to 7 lb., 8 oz.... At his 2-week check-up on 8/25 we marveled at a healthy weight increase to 9 lb., 2.5 oz.... and as a 6-week-old on 9/22, we were shocked when the scale read 12 lb., 8 oz.!!



















Here are a couple more pictures (taken on 9/15/08) that show some facial expressions of Kian's that continue to entertain us....

Kian is One Month Old!

It's hard to believe that Kian, one of the people we love the most in this world, has only been in our lives for a month. During this month, we've seen him grow from 7 lb., 8 oz. at his check-up on the 5th day of his life to a whopping 9 lb., 2 1/2 oz. on the 15th day of his life; we've enjoyed introducing him to friends and family; we've been entertained by his many funny facial expressions; we've been enamored by the moments when he's looked in our eyes and smiled (we'd like to think due to true recognition of our faces and appreciation for the care we've given him and not due to gas or simply imitation); we've experienced a middle-of-the-night clean-up for his projectile poop that traveled halfway across the room and hit the wall, spraying the clean diapers and hamper along the way; and he's witnessed the first of many Broncos wins this season, wearing one of his many Broncos onesies.

We hope to take a photo of Kian on the 10th of each month next to the same teddy bear so that we can see how much he grows!

Two Weeks Old

Now two weeks old, Kian opens his eyes for a bit more time during the day than he did during Week One, so we've tried to capture those fleeting moments so that everyone can see that our son does, indeed, have eyeballs. Here he is wearing a fortune-telling t-shirt from his mommy's friend, Kami. Look out, monkeys... there's going to be a new monkey wrangler in town!

Yesterday, Kian went to his first beer fest with his mom and dad! Laughing Buddha and three other local brewing companies shared samples of their refreshing products. We didn't have a fake ID for him, but nobody hassled Kian for being there. Mostly he received compliments for "starting out right" in life. I took care with the timing of my sips so as to not lace his subsequent feeding with a large quantity of alcohol, but as a couple people have pointed out, Kian is part Irish, so he has a built-in tolerance for holding his liquor!

Kian's First Neighborhood Walk

We took our first walk as a family of three on Thursday! Ryan carefully navigated the uneven pavement, cracks, and rampless curbs -- our precious cargo bundled up inside his new car seat and Graco snap'n-go stroller.
Besides a quick car ride to the pediatrician a few days after Kian's birth, this was the first time I had left the house, so I was a bit tentative to venture very far, fearful that my body still wouldn't be up for much strenuous activity. Luckily, Devin and Teresa's (for those of you who don't know, Devin is Ryan's brother and Teresa is his wife, my dear and favorite sister-in-law) house is only 5 blocks away, with no major inclines to make me cringe with each step.

In fact, it was wonderful to get some fresh air and stretch my legs, and even more fantastic was the pride I felt walking alongside my handsome husband with our new little boy. I'm not gonna lie -- I was also having fun sporting my new stylish diaper bag! ;) I do realize, however, that nobody else gives a crap about the print of my diaper bag.

Before a dinner of grilled fish (trout caught by Finn, who's not even three years old!....OK, so they stocked the pond for kids), we had a great time watching the antics of our nephews as they strutted around in just diapers and Crocs.

In this picture, Finn has just sweetly asked to touch baby Kian. Teresa facilitates the peaceful interaction. I imagine that if younger brother Lochlann were observing, he might have been thinking, "Man, if only Finn handled me with such tenderness and care!" It won't be long before the day will come when all 3 boys will wrestle around - no holds barred - far from the watchful eyes of their parents. So, I'll just enjoy this calm before the storm of playdates with boy cousins.