Life As Baby Knows It

Eden w/ her oversized bibs

Hi princess!

By now I think Baby Eden has finally settled in and is realizing those who are around her. It's nice to have your family close because she usually has a 4:1 ratio watch on her. I always wonder what's on her mind because Eden has different fixed stares for each of us. Eden looks at her Daddy with big eyes and loves to fall asleep on his shoulder. It's funny to watch him hold her because my fiance has enormous hands and carries her in the palm of his hand. She's so tiny compared to him. When Eden looks at her Tio Cheeney, she puckers up and her mouth is in an "O" shape. My little brother makes a lot of funny faces and loves playing around with her. I usually see her bobble her head back resembling a baby wolf who's howling to the moon. When she looks at her Tia Loca (that's what Jonny calls my sister..lol), she stares blankly at her. My sister comes in and fills her with auntie kisses. She just looks amaze because my sister would talk to her and Baby Eden's just trying to take it in. She's probably thinking who is this crazy aunt of mine. It's quite hilarious! Eden loves my mom because my mom is so good at sensing what she needs and is quick to react. My mom can get her to fall asleep instantly and she's an amazing burper. I love that about my mom. It's the grandma's touch.  As for me, she has a tracking device on me. She's probably thinking, "Why is my mommy running back and forth in her bathrobe all the time?" because literally that's what I'm doing all the time. LOL. I love the way she looks at me. She get's all wide eye and could sense my presence in the room. There's no hiding from her, she'll sniff me out. lol I love you princess!

Coupons are the new IT!!!

A few days ago, I was browsing through Target's $1 rack and I found a nifty 13-pocket organizer. I knew this was what I needed to organize my coupons. I had stacks of coupons sitting on my desk for over a week and didn't have the motivation to go through them. :( I needed a way to get organize so I was real happy when I came across this organizer. Sidenote: Huggies and Pampers magically know when you're expecting and will flood your mailbox with coupons even if you didn't fill out any info sheets :)? Pretty neat because I can use all the diaper coupons I can get. Today I finally had the patience to sit at the kitchen table and cut out all the coupons that were sitting on my desk.  I basically divided it into categories such as diapers/wipes, personal, apparel, food, etc with individual dividers for my two favorite stores, Target and Babies R Us. LOVE LOVE these stores!!!! This organizer is so easy to throw in your purse and you know that you won't lose any important coupons.


Why I use coupons? 1. Everything is so expensive as it is and I need to be saving all that I can. 2. Diapers, wipes and baby care items all add up and you go through them so quick. Eden goes through about 12 diapers a day which is pretty excessive. Am I changing her too often? 3. I was inspired by the TLC Extreme Couponing show though I still think it's a bit unrealistic especially in LA. I haven't seen an episode featuring LA couponing. I've been using coupons for mostly groceries and when I can save $5-$10, I get all excited. I can't imagine how I'll feel if I'm couponing like the high rollers on this show. LOL. 


I'm trying to budget too many things from school loans, medical bills, personal, and everyday expenses to get by so coupons are a must now as a mother. Ultimately, the point being is that the economy sucks and everyone should be saving so start using those coupons in your Sunday newspaper!

I love the color

Making tabs

Lots of coupons!

Filling the organizer with coupons!

Room Decor

I finally finished putting together the baby's room. A special thanks to my mom and sister for helping me organize all of the baby things. It was quite tiresome because she had a lot of stuff and I had to somehow manage to fit my stuff in there as well. The room pretty much looked like a disaster when I moved my things back from college. It was a bit overwhelming at first because I had to figure out how to fit her stuff and my stuff in a tiny room but after a few days of organizing, I am content with how it came out. I'm still in the process of personalizing the room (i.e. hanging more pictures, getting her name plated on wall, etc.) but at least everything has a home. I had to get rid of a lot of clothes and nick nat that was cluttering up the room. I think I can probably get rid of more of the things. Maybe that'll be my next project is clearing up the paperwork and school things that I haven't had time to go through.


My favorite piece of furniture that I love in the room is the 9-square storage bin set which allows me to store her bottles, clothes, diapers, and bibs neatly so I can just pull out what I need when I need it. My sister purchased it for me and it was a total steal. It was on clearance for about 12 bucks. The pink fabric drawers that slide into the cube units and that was on sale for $5.99. They're such a convenient way to store your stuff and it's pleasing to the eye because you don't see the clutter.


Check out our room! Let me know what you think!

I love these storage bins

Diapers, bottles, clothes, and books

Jungle crib set!

Lots of storage bins

My bed

Again more storage

This is where all the work happens!

I have  to keep on a schedule

Calendar keeps me sane!

Tiny closet

I gotta utilize the space

Lots and lots of clothes

Eden's 1 Month Bash

Baby Eden and I came back from an amazing weekend. Her 1 month bash was this past Saturday and her grandparents threw her the best party a baby could ask for. The funny thing was that she almost slept through her entire party but rest assured, we made sure we woke her up before the party ended. She's so silly. She slept the entire car ride to LA. Eden received so much clothes that I don't think I'll have to do any shopping for her first year. She's taken over the closet in which we both share. Well, pretty much the entire room consist of her things from baby bottles, changing tables, and diapers. Anywho, thank you to the Ponce Family for throwing her the greatest 1 month bash!

Lovely Roses

The cake matched the plates and napkins!

Mommy and Daughter

Party Time

Family picture!

Love this pic

Tio Cheeny and Eden

 

Gift opening

My pretty little princess

Goodbye Night Owl

I used to be able to stay up all night but this is no longer true. After having Eden, I'm exhausted at 10PM and in bed by 11PM. I'm pushing it if I'm still up after midnight because I know I'll be paying for it the next day. I don't know how I used to be able to stay up until 4AM studying but I guess those were the college years. Having a kid is hard work. Just taking care of one child is so exhausting and without help, I don't know how some mothers manage. They're my hero. Last night, I was helping my mom babysit my little nephew. I had a taste of how much work it takes to care for two kids. Baby Eden and Andrew were both pretty fussy all night. I felt like they were feeding off each other's energy. Eden would start crying and once she stopped, Baby Andrew would cry. I was running back and forth with both of them. I literally would put one kid down and soothe the other. I was pooped! Lesson of the night: I'm going to wait awhile until I have my next child. Probably 5 years down the line.

Sleeping in her pj's

Today, my sister took Baby Eden and I out to Target for the Opening of the P-Fresh celebration. The Target that she works at had just finished remodeling. They added the Produce section. It's pretty neat because now you can basically get everything you need at Target (i.e. grocery, clothes, essentials, school supplies, music, etc). Baby Eden really liked it. There were people dressed up in fruits serving all kinds of goodies. I made sure to take all the different samples they gave out. She got to meet all of my sister's coworkers and they thought she was the cutest thing! I took advantage of the situation and got my sister to watch her while I do my shopping. I'm working on a gift basket for Baby Eden's 1 month bash this weekend. Her grandparents are throwing it. It should be fun!

Ready to ride!

Baby Eden is in bed now. She finished 7 oz. of milk. She'll be out until hmmm....I say 3AM which is when I'll be up with half an eye open to nurse her. Eden still does not sleep through the night regardless of how much milk I try to overdose her on. It goes right through her. The night owl inside of me is gone forever. I used to be energized even at 5AM and be able to take a midterm with no problems. Those days totally are over! :(

Smiles and a pile of diddly babbles!

First smile!!!!

Rollin' around!

I seriously can't get enough of this girl. After her morning feeding, I had her on the play rug and she was observing her surroundings. I wanted her to get some belly time so I propped her up on her unicorn pillow pet and she was rubbing the side of her face on the pillow. All of a sudden, she let out a BIG SMILE! She was staring out of the window and just grinned. I couldn't let this opportunity pass me by so I took out my camera and snapped this shoot. Whoosh, it's a life-long snapshot of her first smile! She definitely has her Daddy's grin, that's for sure. I was crying inside because of how cute she looked. She's growing up so fast. I love how she's been babbling away. I've been trying to annunciate sounds and vowels so that she's be able to pick up the sounds. For instance, sounds like -ma, -ba, and -pa. I can't tell you enough how observant she is. She'll distinctly stare at my mouth when I'm saying it.

One of my favorite shots!

Tongue out and everything!

It's sooo fluffy!!!!

Silly girl!

I wish she had that smile on her face the entire day. Eden was a bit fussy today and just wasn't patient. It wasn't her best days because she was a lot more hungry than any other day. I tried giving her a pacifier but this kid is way too smart for her own good. She knows that milk doesn't come out of it and would just spit it out. For some reason, she doesn't like the binky which sucks because nothing would calm her. She'll just cry it out. Eden's in bed now which I'm glad. I'm exhausted! Hopefully tomorrow would be a better day for her!

Happy 1 Month Baby Eden!!!!!

Tummy time!

She's getting burped!

My baby is officially 1 month! The days flew by so quickly and she's getting older, pretty soon she's going to be 1 years old. For some reason I thought she was a month two days ago which she was actually 4 weeks old. I definitely had a brain fart. I was thinking that I had her on a Sunday so I was counting by the weeks. LOL :) Silly me! She definitely got a lot bigger and is filling out. Baby Eden is now plump and even more beautiful. 


A lot has changed since her birth date. She is a lot more observant and has a very strong neck. She can turn her head back and forth. I'm not afraid to have her sleep on her stomach because I know she can handle her own. I've actually had her sleep on her belly since Week 2. Slowly she's been sleeping through the night but occasionally wakes up in the middle of the night for a late night snack. Eden's sensory and motor skills are more intact and she is definitely more alert now. She senses her environment and likes to stare at colorful objects. When I hold her upright on her feet, she would kick off. She'll do it until she gets tired. Also, Eden loves bath time and she's good in the water. She won't cry which I was surprised about because some babies hate getting wet. I see a little swimmer in the future :) Since birth, she's made monstrous poopie diapers and still does. She has about 6-8 poopie and about 4 pee diapers. This morning was probably her worst because it came outside her diapers and spilled out in the front. It was not fun to clean up and she just grinned at me when I was cleaning her. Today, she officially moved up a weight class and is now wearing the 1's diaper. She grew out of the newborns diapers which is great because I was running out of them. Perfect timing! This girl has a lot of personality and is a total sweetheart. I fall in love with her more and more everyday.


Everyday is a blessing to be able to spend time with her. I know it's going to be hard to have to be out of the house and leave her behind. I had a taste of that this weekend when my sister and I went to go see Harry Potter. I wanted to take her with me. My mom was willing to take her to a birthday party with her and she just wanted me to be out of the house for a change and be normal. I did just that but I was missing her a lot. After the movie (p.s the movie was amazing by the way), my sister asked me if I wanted to go eat sushi but I told her that I wanted to go home and be with my baby. I miss her way too much. My sister told me that I was having "baby withdraws" and it was true. As a mother, you're perfectly content staying with the baby but my mom was right. I needed some time to myself away from the baby.

Getting sleepy already

Pretty in pink

This evening, Eden and I are going for a walk around the neighborhood. I definitely need to start working out now and the perfect way to do it is walking with the baby. She'll probably have an early night and I'll read to her the Disney Princess book she loves! Wow, happy 1 month baby girl!

Pinata, Poppers, Candies and Babies!

\

Happy 1st Birthday Quynh-Anh!

Quynh-Anh and Baby Eden

She's so adorable! I can kiss those cheeks all day.

This past weekend, my family attended my cousin's birthday party and it was a blast. She turned 1 years old. I haven't seen her since her 1 month party and she just got bigger and cuter. It was a busy day for me from sunrise to sunset. We had to make a long drive down to LA and with that comes a lot of planning for a day's trip. Starting from the crack of dawn, I had to get Baby Eden ready for the three hour commute. I nursed her for about 45 minutes, changed her diaper, pumped for about 15 minutes, then I finally got to eat breakfast while she slept. After that, I get her changed and freshened her up. I made sure I had enough diapers, burp towels, blankets, and extra outfits for her in the diaper bag. It's a lot of work. Most importantly, I made sure I had enough milk stored so I'll usually pump extra and store it in the freezer the day before. There's a lot of pre-planning from the outfit she's going to wear to how much milk to pump days in advance. We left about 10AM and headed south. 


We arrived at our first stop at 1PM at the Ponce Residence in Northridge. Baby Eden got to visit her grandparents and her Daddy which she had so much fun. We had a nice lunch with them and her grandparents got to catch up from the last time they saw her. It's been two weeks since they last saw her and they all said she got bigger and was filling out especially in her cheeks.Our next stop was to visit my little brother who wanted to see Baby Eden. He's so great with her. It was a quick visit. We then headed to my baby cousin's birthday party in Glendale. The commute from Northridge to Glendale wasn't to bad. Baby Eden is so good in her car seat. She falls asleep right when the car turns on. We finally arrived at the party and we were welcomed by my uncle and aunt. I got to play with the birthday girl, Quynh-Anh. The party was so much fun although Baby Eden slept through the entire party (she tends to do that a lot). The food was AMAZING! It was all Vietnamese food! I don't get a lot of Vietnamese food back in Fresno so I took advantage of this and ate two plates. It was fun to catch up with my cousins, meet some of my mother's cousins and uncles, and mingle with the other mothers there. 

The kids having fun with the pinata

Go Riley! You can see the determination in his eyes!

That's a lot of candy :)

The little kids got to try their hands at the pinata, pulled the party poppers, and basically run around playing with their friends. My cousin, Riley actually broke the pinata so props to my little slugger. It was so fun to watch the kids go for the candy. I can't wait until Eden is old enough to be able to experience all that. What's even more surprising is that I didn't even face any discrimination from the extended family as my grandparents had said I would get. Everyone was so pleasant and inviting. They wanted to see Baby Eden and they all thought she was the cutest baby with a full head of hair.

Very interesting person

I got the opportunity to sit down and talk to my mother's uncle, Ong Chang (grandfather's brother) who is the patriarch of the family. He explained to me the origin of our last name, Vu and it was interesting because he said our last name actually dates back to the 9th century. He asked me how I decided on Eden's name, what school I went to, and what I plan to do in the future. He was very genuine and a good Christian. He gave his blessing to Baby Eden and I. I also got to meet my mom's cousin, Co Nga who is very hip and modern. She totally understands the young generation and was giving me a lot of useful advice. Overall, the birthday party was a blast. These family gatherings are supposed to be that way. It's not often that we get to see our family members so we should enjoy each other's company. That's what it's all about. Everything for the family. On our way home, Eden of course falls asleep. She slept the entire day! I should have guess because she stayed up the entire night!

Grace, Aunt Bao, and Eden

Auntie Grace and Baby Eden

Photo Op :)

Family can be such a PAIN :(

Ever feel like your family is just full of crap? I do! Worst of all my family is Asian and with that comes all the culture and gossip that they love to do. I say that because I'm so upset at a couple family members who have nothing better to do than meddle into other people's business. I'm talking about my own grandparents (I'm not afraid to rat them out and put them on blast). It started with my grandmother calling me up out of the blue and asking me if I was going to my cousin's 1st birthday party this weekend. I told her that I was going to be present. She asked me if I was going to take my baby along with me and I said "Of course, she's young and she has to go where ever I go." My grandmother then goes and calls my mother pleaing to not take our familiy to the birthday because she says that the extended family is going to be there and talk/gossip about my situation-asking questions about the baby and if I'm married which I'm not afraid to answer. She also said that we would be embarrassing them as well as yourselves and that our reputation would be ruined (what reputation right? I don't think our family even has a reputation to uphold). Basically she didn't want me there or my baby because she was afraid that people would ask about Eden and want to know the story. I'm not afraid to tell people. I'm not gonna lie about it.


What's even more upsetting to me is that my grandmother would not acknowledge the fact that Eden is her great-granddaughter. My mother defended me against my grandmother's words and I'm so happy that I have her because my mother wants to be a part of her granddaughter's life and see her grow up. My mother told my grandmother, "What do you want me to do, not let Holly and Baby Eden out of the house so that no one will know who they are because that's really unrealistic!" My grandmother's response was "Just don't bring her around the family." I was so pissed off and that was the final straw that totally made me lose respect for my grandparents. For them to say that is by far hurtful! These people say they are God-fearing people and they go to church every Sunday. They care more about what people think and say. They care more about reputation than setting it straight. I just can't believe these people. People are going to pass judgement regardless. I use to care but now I don't. I have to do what's right for me and my baby!


My relationship with my grandmother is now over. She's lost her relationship with all of her children and grandchildren. I was the only grandchild who would come and visit her; basically took care of her when she was sick. For her to say shit like that is completely out of character from the bible if she says she's a true Christian because when Judgement Day comes, only God can judge. Oh it gets worse, the next day, my mother receives an email from my grandfather. It was their final plea for us not to go to the birthday party which they were not invited because my uncle also has beef with his mother (my grandmother). Funny how everyone doesn't want a relationship with my grandmother. They gave an ultimatum saying that if we attend, they don't want anything to do with our family, basically don't visit or talk to them. How childish is that!!! It saddens me that they are like that and I understand that they are from the old country but they really need to get over themselves. I don't see why if they have beef with me, they are taking it out  on my daughter and bring her into this. When the extended family sees Eden, they see a baby and her innocence. They're defenseless and should not have anything to do with family drama.


Being a mother, I wouldn't want my daughter to have to go through any of this. I don't want her to be surrounded by negativity. Maybe ending the relationship with my own grandmother is a good thing and I don't have to hear her judge me anymore. I don't stand for what she says and believes in. Sometimes burning a bridge is better in order to protect my daughter from the hurt that was being said. I know my decision was right. My grandmother is missing out on meeting an extraordinary and amazing person. Sometimes people let opportunities pass them by, I'm not missing this one!

Summer Cleaning! Organizing FUN!

 This past week, I helped my mom organize the kitchen. My mom has a lot of stuff and it just keeps accumulating so I had to intervene and help her out. I felt like I was on an less extreme episode of Hoarders because I would repeatedly say, "Can we get rid of this?" or "Are you really gonna use this?" LOL. My mom was willing to get rid of a lot of her things which was nice because it sped up the process. We spent each day cleaning out a section of the kitchen and organizing each drawer. The kitchen looks a lot more declutter. We plan to have a garage sale at the end of the month though I have already been posting a lot of her nicer items on Craig's List. Oh how I love technology! It's like having an online garage sale. I've sold a few items in less than 30 minutes and the buyers came that same day. It's awesome! Now that I think about, I actually need to declutter a lot of my personal things. Moving back to my mom's house, I have even less space (well not that I had a lot of space living in my college apartment but you know what I mean). Half of the room is filled Baby Eden's things i.e. changing table, her clothes, etc which leaves me to getting rid of a lot of my college things. I'll be fun to go through them.

Spic n' Span

Deep Cleaning-Down and dirty

I think it's time to declutter my life, figuratively and literally. Simplicity is key and nice especially when I want to move forward. I finished the first chapter of my life which was finishing college and I did. Now I got to write the next chapter. We'll see how it goes!

 

 

As a mother, I've learned that I have to utilize the time that I have when Baby Eden is asleep. When she falls asleep, I have a certain amount of time before she wakes up so I gotta work fast and efficiently.  I'm on Baby Eden's schedule now. For the most part, she's a good baby. She does have a hard time taking naps but when she does, she's out cold for a few hours. It's nice for me because I can work around the house or just get "me time." I love spending time with her because I'm just learning so much about her. More later, my baby's about to wake up!