Hannah's First Portraits

I took Hannah the other day to Portrait Innovations for her first pictures. It's a chain photo taking company that charges no sitting fees or charges for special effects so I thought I'd give them a shot. If I didn't like any of them, I didn't have to buy. Plus a few people had recommended them. For a chain, they were pretty good. I was really pleased with the experience. They were really nice and patient with Hannah. They tried their best to make her smile and we got some really good shots as you see. Her second outfit is her Halloween costume. I found that in August and had to buy it for her. She looks so cute in it.

As a bonus, Portrait Innovations gives you a CD with all of the raw images but in low resolution so you can email or as I'm doing, posting them on their web page. If you try to print it, it won't be very clear. The higher resolution copy of the pictures, I have to go back to them to reprint. Check out the photos of her. Warning, they are the raw images, so there's no special effects and no corrections.

We're going back on sunday for our family pictures. We'll post them next week if they turn out good.

Mr. Chatty

Ian's become quite the chatterbox with his increasing vocabulary with his cute little voice. Sometimes he'll even repeat what we say. There's too much he says for me to remember but here's a few of the favorites:

- Favorite phrase right now is "What's that" for every sound he hears.
- He'll say "C'mon", "Follow Me", "Later", and "Hold You" when he wants you to hold him.
- One night at dinner, the next door dog barked. He said "What's that?". Andrew said "The dog is barking at the plane". So every time Ian hears a dog bark, he says "Dog barking at airplane".
- Can sing the ABC song but just doesn't quite pronounce all of the letters clearly yet.
- Sings all of the words to "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".
- For other songs he hears a lot, he tries to follow along with the song
- He tries to count, he says "1...2...3....9...10"
- He excitedly yells out "BIG truck", "moorcycle", "orange bus", "yellow bus carrying peple" every time he sees one of them
- Mommy hates bugs, so every time she sees one in front of Ian, she says "Go Away Bug". Well... every time Ian sees a bug or thinks there's a bug, we hear "GO AWAY BUG!".
- Every night at bedtime, we read him stories. His two favorites are "Brown Bear Brown Bear What do you See?" and "Goodnight Moon". In the Brown Bear book, he insists that the Yellow Duck is an Orange Duck and won't give up until you say Orange Duck. He also likes to say that the "Blue Horse is eating the book" and that the "Purple Cat sitting on BUTT". In Goodnight Moon, my half Chinese boy insists that it's not a bowl full of mush but a bowl full of riiicce.

Hannah at 2 months

My how fast these children grow. Hannah had her 2 month check-up the other day. She got four shots that day which she screamed about but took them like a champ and had no side effects. Hannah is not alittle shrimp. Here's her stats:

Weight: 14 lbs 4 ounces (97th percentile)
Length: 23 inches (75th percentile)
Head Circumference: 16 1/4 inches (95th percentile)

Hannah is growing beautifully. She's starting to smile and talk (coo) more now. She's also become louder and makes it known that she wants food RIGHT NOW. Her neck has gotten stronger and she's able to hold it up when we hold her but she doesn't care for tummy time too much. She'll do it for a few minutes and then starts the screaming. Hannah has also started to grab things like mommy's hair or daddy's finger. We're going to try take her to the swimming pool this weekend for the first time before the water gets too cold. We'll be sure to take lots of pictures.

Our trip to San Francisco

Ian, Hannah and I flew to San Francisco on saturday, September 8 with the help of Uncle Cuo Cuo as Ian says it (Clifford) who flew in the night before. Traveling with two kids is much more difficult than traveliing with one especially in the Security line at the airport. Thank goodness they weren't that crowded and we had the whole lane to ourselves. Hannah was very good on the plane. She pooped after she ate and luckily the plane was half full so I was able to go to an empty row and change her since Southwest doesn't have changing tables in their bathrooms. Ian was good in the beginning of the flight then he started to get antsy. We bought a Personal DVD player to entertain him and he was fascinated by it. He kept playing with it as we expected. He only fussed at the end of the flight when we had to turn it off and put our seat belts on. He didn't get a nap in so he was pretty cranky about wearing a belt. Nonna picked us up at the airport and Ian was so excited to see her. As expected, Ian fell asleep as soon as the car started rolling. Ian was pretty shy at first about being at Nonna's house and seeing Nonna. It didn't last long when he saw the stairs at her house. He made numerous trips up and down the stairs. When he goes down stairs he likes to "boom boom" which means sit on your butt and go down. Later that night, he got even more excited when he saw Brandon. He just loves hanging out with Brandon and will follow and play with him. Brandon is one of the few people Ian instantly will play and talk to.

The next day we went to San Jose and had lunch with Vicki, John, Vanvy, Mike, Lisa, and Barbie and their kids Jason, Eric, Madison, and Kyle. Ian was shy with all of the new faces but I got him to sit with Jason and Eric for lunch. He enjoyed eating with them and playing on the grass. He really enjoyed their car (since he hasn't been able to play with his because it's so hot here). They also have a gas station so he was filling up the cars. We then went to Nathan and Felicia's house so we could meet Harrison. Harrison is about 6 weeks older than Hannah. He was such a cutie. He's got some strong legs ready to go snowboarding. We took several pictures of the two together. Maybe those two will go boarding when they're older like their parents did. We then finished the day off with a chinese banquet dinner with Nonna's family. Ian of course ate rice. He insisted on scooping the rice himself in the bowl though. What was really cute was that he fed me a couple of times.

Over the next several days, we stayed in San Francisco and hung out. Nonna took care of Hannah most of the time so Ian and Mommy could have bonding time. We went to the playground everyday and Ian loved it. He loved climbing the stairs there and then running down the long ramp at the park. He also enjoyed playing in the sandbox. He wasn't so much in to the slides and swings but was more in to just running, jumping, and swinging on the bars. Ian got to ride the cable car for the first time and loved it. He kept saying "Weee" and "Whoa", he didn't want to get off. I also took him to the aquarium for the first time. He was pretty tired, so he wasn't too impressed. He actually ended up falling asleep at the aquarium.

Daddy flew in at the end of the week and we went to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (formerly known as Marine World). He was at first scared to see the big roller coaster rides and then he was fascinated with them. Ian enjoyed driving the safari car, seeing dolphins, and riding the trains. He did not want to get off the rides.

We had a great trip to San Francisco. Some of the family and friends got to meet Hannah. Ian and Mommy had a lot of good mommy and son time. Ian can't wait to go back to Nonna's house.