happy 1st birthday syona monster!

We celebrated Syona's 1st birthday last weekend at the Old Spaghetti Factory in San Jose, a family tradition restaurant. I can recall when I was getting the kids meal here sitting in the cable car, so it was really neat to celebrate Syona's birthday here. We had about 60 people attend the festivities (including 2 toddlers and 7 adorable babies, poor Mckenna was sick and could not come), and therefore was able to secure the backroom all to ourselves! I think Syona

was really happy to see all the balloons, her placemat (each kids got their own special souvenier as well) and her baby friends. We had set out a little play area with some play mats for the babies to waddle around and have fun. As much as they say the first baby is really for the parents, we did our best to make it fun for Syona and her little pals as well. We had set out a huge kids table with chairs for the parents and high chairs for the little ones to all sit together. Syona did a nice job eating her spaghetti noodles all by herself and oodling at her balloons. The best part was when the cake came out, we sang happy birthday (syona didn't cry so it's good we prepped her by introducing the bday song since she was 11 months) and then took turns all feeding her cake.

We then gave her a big piece and let her go to town, which was really fun to do and a treat for all of us to take pleasure in and enjoy. I had got a little tutu made for her from eBay and a little happy birthday syona shirt as well that got pretty trashed during the spaghetti and cake time. Auntie Jackie made the end of the party and surprised us with some good news ***to be posted at a later date*** and we did a champagne toast at home to celebrate.

Syona opened all her presents and has been playing with fun books, cars, puzzles, music toys and little animals ever since. Thanks to everyone for coming, celebrating and for showering Syona with so much love and joy. Special thanks to Bhabhi for coming to Syona's party all the way from India and for Koichi making a day trip from Seattle! Love you guys!

Dear Miss Lien

Here is a snap of Syona with our wonderful nanny, Miss Lien. Syona certainly knows her by name and loves to get her legs massaged while getting fed her milk bottles. What a life!

Mr.Mom

I have to say, it's been pretty nice having not only a nanny at home, but a Paul as well. Paul has been on the last of his paternity leave for the last 2.5 weeks, and I have been the bread winner bringing home the applesauce and split peas with brown rice baby food. What a switch! :) I took this pic of Paul, carrying Syona in the Baby Ergo wrap, picking up some groceries from Safeway, with a starbucks coffee and a balloon for Syona in his hand. Hence, the title of the post Mr. Mom.

But with all joking aside, I do truly notice a change in not just Syona's attachment to Paul, but Paul himself. He is a lot more weary of Syona's needs, how to feed her, waking up to change her diaper, helping her take her naps, playing with her and her toys, teaching her new tricks like what a duck says (quack quack) and all around just being there with her. Syona is soooo much attached to her dada at the moment, that she loves to go to me BUT, then loves to go back to him in no time. It's very sweet and it makes me very happy to see them both bonding. I think he needs to stop confusing her by showing her his nipples and saying mum mum (food) though, but you can't have everything.

3 Pretty Ladies in Leopard

Syona and her two grandmas all coincidentally decided to wear leopard print on the day we celebrated Paul's mom's 60th! Happy Birthday Nai Nai!

PeePee, PooPoo, Brush Your Teeth, then Mum mum- Morning routine

From a few days of waking up and keeping the diaper off in the morning to air out her rash, I found that Syona has a morning pattern of doing her business then. So Shilpa and I got the idea of getting her started with potty training. Shilpa already bought the potty converter (plugs right into our big potty- see pic below)

Sure enough little Syona was ready for this step. The first day, she went tinkle. The second day, she went pee pee and poo poo. She now goes shortly after we put her on the Can. She even knows to flush by turning around and pointing to the flusher when she is done. So we try to sing a little bye bye poopie song. :)

To round off the routine, we are also trying to get the teeth brushing in before taking her down for the rest of the morning routine of eating/having mum mum before playing.

As you can see, Syona is starting to progress even more from the mother goose phase to toddler phase. After the first week of my three week paternity leave, I have had time to find out more of what she comprehends already. I can tell that she feels closer to me in that she would look for me to hold her and would readily call Dada when referring to me to do something for her. For example, she calls out Dada and points to me to read her books by picking up a particular book (Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb - the one with the monkeys on it). Since I do all the monkey sounds and movement that she seems to enjoy, I think she is associating all monkey things to me now. I guess the State of California has some things right in terms of providing some leave time for paternity purposes since spending more time with Syona really provides bonding memories (now if we can get the budget balanced).