photo taken by auntie Laura

Mama and Bap

For a while, Penny would say, "ba-ba-ba" a lot and Minkz would say, "Hi ba" when he greeted her. Well, somehow this has caught on with her and when she sees dada, she says "bap!". So, it seems like Bap is her name for him at the moment...

She's back

It took about a week, but Penny seems to be adjusted back to California time and routine now.
We had the funniest experience going out to eat the other day. It was the first time in a while that we ate out and I actually got to eat as much as I wanted to at a relaxed pace. The reason was because Penny was occupied observing the table next to us as they conversed in Mandarin. She seemed really fascinated by the different sound and she just stared at them the entire time we were there! We were happy that it kept her entertained while we ate.

Japan trip 09-10

International travel with a baby was a whole new experience for us. We really didn't know what to expect. Some of things that I was worried about were, how she would behave on the flight, how she would handle the time zone difference, breastfeeding acceptability there, and eating out with the baby. The flights were okay - the way back was a little harder than expected because she could not sleep well even though it was time for her to sleep. The time change took about a week to adjust - she was usually asleep by around 6 pm and awake around 5 am. So, one of the challenges for us was getting dinner before she was passed out. Breastfeeding was not a problem. Since she nurses less frequently I rarely had to feed her while we were out. I did find a couple of nice nursing rooms. Eating out was a challenge because of the lack of secure highchairs.. Another difficulty is that we didn't bring a stroller so we carried her the entire time and she gets heavy (especially when she is asleep). We didn't get to do everything that we wanted to this trip, partly because it was brief and partly because of the baby. But, overall, it was worth it for us to go. We really wanted my grandmother in Japan to meet the baby and vice versa. Although Penny will not remember it, she will know that she has been there and I hope she realizes that it is important to us that she has ties to our relatives there.