9 months old

Tesshin turned 9 months old today. No bells and whistles. He actually had his well check appointment today. He only had one shot versus his normal four. He cried for about 5 seconds and then he was ok. He completely lost it when they pricked his finger to check his blood for anemia.


After his appointment, we drove over to see Karen and Akemi (Fu). Akemi has gotten so big since the last time I saw her. She smiles and responds to Karen's voice. It's so cute. We were Stroller Mamas and walked over to Corner Bakery for lunch. I love their California Grille Paninis. He was fussy in the stroller but he setlled down once we got to the restaurant. I think he was fussy because he was fighting a bout of diarrhea. I had him on my lap and I felt some movement. Next thing I know, I feel something very warm on my leg. I look down and I see poop on my jeans. Yikes! I rushed him to the bathroom but there was a line (of course). I eventually got him cleaned up and tried to enjoy the rest of my lunch. I put him in a restaurant high chair for the first time today. I'm totally lovin' it! He can actually sit there, eat a bowl of Cheerios and be somewhat content for 10 minutes while the grown ups eat. Akemi was a perfect little angel the entire time. Such a sweet girl! Overall, we had a great day and I give special thanks to Karen for putting up all of the craziness of the day.

On his own

We let Tesshin explore the world of baby food today. He's starting to grab the spoon out of our hands whenever we feed him. And he always tries to grab a hold of his feeding bowl, so we thought it should be time to let him hold a spoon and try feeding himself. We showed him how to dip the spoon in the bowl and then put it up to his mouth. We probably did that 5 times. Here's the results:

Oh boy...do we have a long way to go. I'm glad he only messed up his hands and face. A couple of nights ago, he was so fussy that he started to pull his hair while his hands were covered with Peas. Not fun for Mom.

Tesshin is also starting to pull himself up on his own a lot more. We were at Tessho's co-worker's house on Saturday night to visit and meet their new baby girl. They have a step between their dining room and living room. Tesshin was crawling around in the living room and started to make his way towards the step. I didn't think he could get up to the dining room but he proved me wrong. He put both hands on the step, lifted his right knee on top of it and then his left knee and BAM! he made his way over the step. I thought it was a fluke so I brought him back down into the living room. Not even 10 seconds later he got over the step again. Everyone was clapping. What a showoff!

Yummy paper

One of my favorite YouTube clips is of a baby laughing really hard every time his dad rips a piece of paper. It just cracks me up every time I see it. He is just so cute and there's something about a baby's laugh that really brightens your spirit. That leads me to trying that with Tesshin....absolutely no reaction. Actually, I did get a reaction. I got a "What the heck are you doin' Momma?" look from him. Ok, I tried. The only reason why I did it is because he loves to play with paper. He tears my People magazine apart. We love Sundays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays because of all of the loose ads he can play with. It can keep him occupied for hours. But wait....now he eats the paper. First it was the coffee table, now paper? This kid is weird. First he nibbled on the Domino's pizza ad, then he moved on to Direct TV. I told him that he was ruining his appetite for dinner so he stopped. No, I'm just kidding :o)

Tesshin has also found the simplest pleasure from a plastic cup. It was on the floor in the kitchen. After he was done banging on the pie tins, he immediately crawled over to the bright red object. He kept reaching out to grab it but it would just roll away from him. He was so determined to grab that cup. At one point, he sat up and flapped his arms in frustration (so cute by the way). He eventually got it and he was a happy camper. I let him play with it while I was eating dinner. He never put it up to his mouth. Oh well.

Mommy and me time

It was just me and Tesshin tonight. I remember those nights when it was just the two of us and I could put him anywhere and he would still be there when I got back. Now when I want to go use the bathroom or get something to eat, he's right there behind me, at me heels. I have to be sure I have something to keep him occupied while I'm doing what I'm doing. If I'm in the kitchen, he's banging on pie tins. If he finds his way to the office, I have some of his toys on the floor. I try my best not to let him find me in the bathroom - gross! Anyway, it was nice spending time with him. He surprises me every day with something new he can do. Today, he showed me that he can turn the page of a book. I was reading a book to him and he took complete charge of turning the page. He would let me finish reading the page and when I said "Turn the page", he would. I would help and lift the page so he could grab it, but he held onto it until I told him to turn the page. I thought that that was neat. I hope he'll like to read books when he's older. Tessho came home from his school's open house and Tesshin showed off his new skill to him, too. It could be a one time fluke but I'm still proud of him. We also showed Tessho his nice fat bump above his eye. I was on all fours and Tesshin crawled over to me. He likes to put his head against yours and when he did that the second time he came down hard and knocked me in the side of my head. It hurt me so I know it hurt him more. When I gave him a bath, I saw a huge bump above his eye. Poor thing. Well, I leave you with a picture of my boy. He was playing peek-a-boo with me behind the wall.

On a Sunday Afternoon

It has been so hot in Long Beach over the weekend. Our temperature clock read 100 degrees yesterday and it's gone up to 104 already today and it's only 1:30pm. Tessho mowed the lawn so I took this opportunity to take Tesshin out and let him soak up some sun. He was intrigued with the texture of the grass that he never looked up to smile for the camera. Doesn't it look like he's meditating in the right hand picture? It's in the genes, I guess...

Latest development

I took him to the doctor today. After being switched from room to room to room, we finally saw the doctor and she said that he doesn't have an ear infection so we just have to let nature run its course. He still has a runny nose but his cough is better. While we were waiting to see the doctor, he was getting so restless so I put him on the floor so he could move around. I also let him play with his little turtle. This was the first time I saw him crawl around, stop and sit up, all while holding onto his little turtle toy. He would usually stop crawling, sit up and then reach down for his toy. I was so mad I didn't have a camera.

My new favorite thing - sitting up

It's amazing how up until three weeks ago, all Tesshin could do was roll over - back to front, front to back. Now he can crawl and he's all over the place. We've confined him to the living room but he found his way through the hallway and into the bathroom today. He also made his way into the kitchen. Now, our house isn't huge, but I can't believe how mobile and quick he's become. He also can crawl for a while and then sits up without using his hands to prop himself up. He also likes to pull himself up on his knees. Sometimes, he can get up to his feet but it's not consistent yet. It looks like he's ready to get up on his feet and walk but he has to learn to lift his legs up. He's only been home for a week but he's accomplished so much. If we can only get him to use a teething ring!!!

Teething table

For some reason, Tesshin does not like to put things in his mouth. I'll give him a plastic spoon or a cup...he'll just throw them onto the ground. We've bought all sorts of teething rings and teething related toys. All different kinds of textures. We'll refrigerate some, we'll freeze some but he has no interest. We also have a blanket with taggies on them but that doesn't even work. Until.....last night, he decided to chew on the corner of our coffee table. He's such a goofy kid. Out of all of the things in our house...the coffee table? Tessho and I just looked at each other and said "Ugghhh..I hope you wiped down that table". Well, what's a few germs? Builds immunity, right?

Sick again

Without fail, whenever Tesshin is out of daycare for more than a couple of days, he'll go back and get sick. This time he's had a horrible phlegmy cough and a runny nose. It's actually cute to see him blow snot bubbles out of his nose. I tried to get a picture of it but they always pop before I can. If I can get a picture, I'll post it up.

2:45 alarm clock

Tesshin has been waking up at 2:45am every morning. It's actually gotten to the point where my internal clock gets me up at 2:45. He used to give us 8-10 hours of blissful sleep. Now he gets up in the middle of the night and starts crying. You might be thinking "Well, he's a baby. That's what he does". No, no, no....this is a cry he's never done before and it lasts for a while. It takes a good 1-2 hours to put him down again. I guess we were really lucky that he never woke up in the middle of night and he wasn't much of a crier. He's probably making up for lost time. Anyway, so the point of this post is to let you all know about the magic cure to Tesshin's crying - HUMPHREY'S TEETHING PELLETS. They're 100% natural - no ibuprofen or aspirin. I like it for that reason. You can get it at Walgreen's for $3.99. Beats hundreds and hundreds of dollars of therapy. We heard about these magic pellets from a few sources. Tessho's mom actually left the Easter festivities and drove over to Walgreen's to get them. I guess they started to use this while he was up there. I didn't even think to continue with it so he's gone to bed without it for the past couple of days. This will be part of his evening ritual now.

Future Lakers MVP

Our good friends, Amber and Matt, were nice enough to give us their tickets to the Lakers Town Hall Meeting tonight. This is an event for season ticket holders to come out and have a Q&A session with Mitch Kupchak, meet the Lakers girls, Championship Trophy viewing, locker room viewing and more. We got fed a boxed lunch for dinner. It was actually really fun. It was general admission seating but after the Q&A, we could go down and sit courtside, just to get the feel of what it would be like to sit down there during a game. I've only sat in the nosebleed section so it was pretty awesome. Tessho tried the half-court shot but didn't make it. For the raffle, they gave away a signed Kobe Bryant basketball, signed team basketball, autographed Lamar Odom jersey and a Derek Fisher jersey. Sadly, we walked away empty handed. Tesshin got himself an autographed picture of the Lakers girls, along with a warm-up outfit and bib. He wore his Lakers socks to represent. The Lakers girls thought it was so cute. Of course he didn't cry when he was getting his picture taken with them.