Four Months!

Ami is 4 months old!

She loves playing with her hands and attempts to bring things to her mouth.... and gets frustrated sometimes when she doesn't succeed :(

She smiles at just about anything, and cries at just about anything as well. hehe!

Happy 4 month birthday baby girl :)

So Thankful

There are just some days that being thankful impresses itself on me more than others. Today is one of those days.

I am thankful for warmth on a very cold, snowy day.

I am thankful for my husband, who is home now and starting his new job in February. I am thankful that he has a job that can support me staying at home with our two kiddos, thankful that it helps fund my photography hobby, my attempts at being an artist and designer. And thankful that he supports me in pursuing those passions.

I am thankful that his job can provide any one of these beautiful house we are looking at where we can grow into as a family, and be near to my parents.

I am thankful for two healthy and happy children that give us so much joy and so much love.

I am thankful for Christmas music that reminds me where my heart and head should be, and also reminds me to be joyful and childlike.

I am thankful for the photographer across the street that, when her shop lights up with a strobe, it is like a reminder to be creative and to go do something. I am then thankful for crafty blogs that give me so many ideas...

I am thankful for my baby girl who is 4 months old already, and who brings my heart so much joy... and brings happiness to others too!

I am thankful for my 'big' boy, who is a little over 2, who gives me reasons each day to laugh, smile, give and receive hugs.

I am thankful for friends, who come to help, come to play and come to say 'Goodbye' but somehow that word is never mentioned... it is more like a 'we will just pretend you are not leaving, and make some excuse to come visit you' or a 'see you soon.'

I am thankful that no one threw us a surprise going away party, because honestly, I hate surprise parties. I have only had surprise parties when I was moving away as a child, so really, those parties were no fun at all. :(

So instead of saying "Goodbye" I am going to say that I am so thankful for all our friends that we have met while living in this beautiful city. Thankful for our time together, that we have hopefully all made each other better for knowing each other.

See you soon.

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For those friends that are not pictured, please don't feel left out! I have been so busy experiencing this last week with friends that I keep forgetting to document it :(

I shall try harder this last week!

Happy 3 Months baby Girl :)

Ami started off alright, but quickly got sad :( that is what I get for taking pics of her when she is already tired! hehe... at least she is super cute when she is crying too ;)

You found your hands about three weeks ago, and love to play, look and suck on them!

Your hair seems to get longer every day, and is especially cute when washed and all curly :)

It seems like you are getting teeth already!?! I don't know, but it looks like a ridge is starting, and it feels like one is too.... too soon baby girl, too soon! Stay a baby for as long as possible.

You have slept up to 10 hours in a night, and then promptly woke up every two hours a few nights later ;) But you average about 6 hours a night, thank you VERY much baby girl, you are so thoughtful to your Mama :)

You smile at anyone who will look at you and talk to you, but you are starting to figure out when people are not your Mama and give the fiercest cries and cartoon-like sad faces when you realize it.

You love Love LOVE getting a bath, and will stay in there for as long as I let you (just like your Mama :)), cooing and giggling and talking to me, playing with your hands and taking in everything around you.

You are pretty good at trying to track Chase when he runs by you, and when you are actually able to do it, you smile :)

I love that you smile at me with your whole body, that you want to snuggle in to me when you are tired, that you fall asleep on me when you nurse sometimes... I love being your Mama most of all, and can't wait to see what an amazing person you grow up to be... wait scratch that, stay a baby as long as possible, so I can treasure each moment I have with you for as long as possible.

Kiddo Comparisons

So I got some photos of Jeff, myself and both kiddos together to see if the kids look like either of us... or like each other... but even though I see some similarities, I don't think the kdis look that much alike... I don't know, you decide! :)

Chase and Ami hours after being born

Three birthdays and a wedding!

Over the last two weeks we have had lots of traveling, celebrated some Birthdays (belated and not) and a wedding!

Two weeks ago, on October 8th, my baby girl turned 2 months old! I can't believe that she has already been in this world for two and a half months! She still feels so new to me... even though I also feel like I have had her forever in my life :) I just love her so much, and it is such a treat when she looks at me and gives a huge smile and tries so, SOOO hard to talk to me :)

My parents and my Grandmother (Nana) came out to visit us for a quick trip. My Nana had lived in Pittsburgh with my Papa and aunts for quite a few years and so we drove by and visited their old house. At some point after they moved away, the owner put up a railing on the front porch and down the front stairs, but other than that, it looked pretty much the same from the outside. Nana said it was nice to see it so well taken care of... that someone else loves that house as much as she did. :)

Here are 4 generations of Titus'/Tsai's/Price's sitting in our living room in Pittsburgh... possibly for the last time they might visit us while we live here :( . Nana (age 80), my Dad (58), me (29), Chase (2) and Ami (2 months).

My parents and Nana helped me fly back to Chicago with the kiddos (I don't know how else I would have done it!) for my friend Hillary's wedding. I had responded 'yes, I will come!' to the wedding invite before I even knew how I was going to get there with two kids in tow! HA! I just knew I wanted to be there to support my good friend from High School :)

Here is a photo of Hillary, my mom and I at Hill's wedding. I don't know her husband all that well, but it seems like he is a really great guy...I am so happy for her!

I must say though... it was kind of a mad scramble trying to find an outfit for me to wear! Two months post baby does NOT let you fit into former pre-baby dresses! Luckily my mom went with me and we spend a whole day shopping and found a skirt and top for me to wear that was actually flattering to my post-baby shape! :) YAY, THANKS MOM!

Oct. 17, my hubby finally turned my age! (I am already dreading the time when I will be 30 before he will be, it just feels weird to me for some reason... must be all those preconceived social notions of having an older husband ;) !)

We celebrated at my parents house, since we were there that weekend for the wedding. We also celebrated for Chase, since my parents we not able to make it out for his actual birthday. We got an Ice Cream Cake from Coldstone (they have actual cake in the cake, unlike DQ), and celebrated after a dinner of Portillo's... Jeff's place of choice ;)

Here is a photo of Jeff, Ami and me at the wedding... all dressed up and looking nice ;)

Happy Mother's Day/Christmas to Me!

Yes, Yes... I know it is October... but back around mother's day, I came across a super cool website (which I can't seem to find anymore, otherwise I would post the link) and saw these cool business cards for moms. 'Cause when you are at the playground and meet another mom that you want to connect with, there is just never time to write down someone's info (if you even have a pen and paper!). I sent it along to Jeff in the hopes he would 'gift' it to me ;)... and then totally forgot about it with everything that has been going on this past year. So last week, Jeff whipped these out as an early Christmas present/belated Mother's Day gift for me :) YAY!

Speaking of some things that I would love to have as gifts, because I wouldn't buy them for myself and I would be afraid I would never use them :( are:

A sewing dress form... something about having a dress form in a room just seems COOL... sigh.

Cool boots

(Although I never know what I would wear with them :( )

Things I would love to have as gifts for the kids:

Handmade wooden teethers, rattles and toys... so beautifully made!

And, of course, these cute things

(the leggings, not the baby... I've got one of those already!):

Just some things I drool over ;)

Happy Birthday Chase :)

Happy 2nd Birthday to my baby boy!

You came into the world on September 26th

at 3:38am

weighed 6lbs

and were 18 inches long

and I loved you from the start...

(Password Chase1)

Chase is 2! from Mel Tsai on Vimeo.

A Birthday Slideshow for Chase :)

What's up Doc?

Speaking of doctors - kind of - this past summer we learned that Chase was allergic to Cashews. Eeek! Scary to have to deal with, and it wasn't even that serious on the 'reaction' scale!

The doc prescribed an Eppi (sp?) pen for me to carry around in case his allergic reaction would ever get more severe, and wrote me a script to get Chase's blood taken and tested for other nut allergies.... I don't know HOW he thinks I am going to get an almost 2 year old to sit and get his blood drawn, but he was as insistent as I have ever seen him to get him tested. I guess it really would cut our worrying in half if we knew exactly what to avoid and/or the various levels of allergy to each type of nut. I wonder if Ami will have any types of food allergies?

The last two weekends have been jam-packed full of fun :) I really love doing these things, it is just such a bummer that I get so exhausted from all of it :( Last weekend we went to Chuck-E-Cheese to scope it out as a potential Birthday party site for Chase and Asher's shared Birthdays. (Asher is the oldest child of our friends the Keiths, Asher and Chase were both born on Sept 26th, 2008!) But it was all a bit much, especially for kiddos that really don't even stay on the rides for more than 2 seconds. I think it was more for the Dads that liked the concept (and playing the games) than the kids. We did a joint birthday party last year for the boys at a park (cowboy themed), but the day was rainy and cold :( it was the first day like that last year, it was just a bummer that it was on the boy's birthday! I would love to just have it at a park again, but am afraid that the weather might turn on us again :(

Also last weekend we went to our first baseball game(s) as a family of four! Let me explain... We went on Sunday with our good friends Rachel and Brendan Kelly, and then, because it was a Holiday and the Pirates were having another afternoon game on Monday, we called up our good friends the Keiths and got them to go to another game with us. I must say, we got the BEST seats for toddlers on Sunday and then got the same ones again on Monday. After the game we walked around the river (a bit too much walking for me :( I still haven't worked out too much since Ami's birth, and really am out of shape!), saw an old Military Ship from D-day... so amazing. Walked through Heinz Field, which was open for the BBQ festival or some such thing, and came home to collapse!

Tuesday was laundry, recovering, and Jeff's late class day.

Wednesday was Bible Study day.

Thursday was Ami's check up and Chase's nut allergy consultation day... and that afternoon we headed off to another adventure!

Jeff and Micah (Keith) took Friday off of work, and we all went to the Laurel Highlands for the Highland Games (Scottish Festival). Friday we spent at a great local park, with bricked walking/biking trails, lakes and paddle boat rentals. We walked/biked around, ate lunch there and went back to the hotel for the kiddos to take their naps. That night we ate at Texas Roadhouse - a staple from my college days! - It was a bit of heaven to have those warm rolls and sweet butter again :)

Saturday was the actual festival, and it was pretty interesting, there were more people there than I expected, but less to do (I guess I was expecting more of a 'Renaissance Fair' type of a thing). They had huge guys in kilts throwing hammers, and a caber toss - although we missed the caber toss :( Most of the Scottish breeds of dogs were present, with doggie activities and agility courses. There was Highland dancing, which looked similar to Irish Dance, but using arms also. It was just nice to get outside, walk around in the beautiful weather and hang out with some great friends! (Brendan was actually able to meet us out there and hang out with all of us too! YAY!)

On another note, I started cloth diapering the kiddos again. This is week three, although we 'cheated' with disposables for our weekend away... it seems to be going well though. When I have Chase in cloth he really seems to pay more attention to when he has to 'go' and will sometimes tell me. He has told me three times in the last two days that he has had to 'peepees.' Two of those times he was totally naked, but I guess it was good that he told me before he went in the hallway! I just stuck him in the tub for those times, and then rinsed him off. Maybe he just likes standing up versus the sit-down potty method? We shall see :)

Silly boy, he wanted to wear Ami's new Columbia Jacket (size 6months!) and he fit in it! He also needed to keep it on while playing with bubbles, water and ice ;) silly silly kiddo.

Happy 1 Month (and a week!) Birthday Ami :)

So my baby girl is now a month old! (Technically, as I am writing this she is one month, one week and 20 or so hours old.) Last week was super hectic so I never got around to writing anything down... I am trying to get better at this blogging thing, because I STINK at journaling, and seem to be better at recording our lives this way :)

She is becoming so smiley! She has been smiling since she was three days old, but would only smile about once a day, if that. Now, every time she is awake and not fussy, she is trying out various facial positions.... some of the faces she makes are really funny, I just wish I could have a camera in my retina to capture what I am seeing! Because she really never seems to want to smile when I ACTUALLY have the camera!

We went to the doc for our 1 month check up last Friday, and baby girl is looking great! :) She weighted in at a WHOPPING 7lbs 14oz... I guess I just create gigantic children ;) Some of my friends and family have birthed children at that weight, not waited a month for them to get to that weight! ;)

The past two nights Ami has slept about 6 1/2 hours at night (from 10:30pm-5am) and it has been WONDERFUL. Good job baby doll! You seriously got your sleeping skills/needs from your Mama (before kids, of course!). She seems to really be growing and getting bigger every day. Her legs are starting to loose the newborn fetal 'scrunch,' and straightening out when she is awake. Her eyes were trying to track me around the kitchen yesterday :). And her arms and legs are starting to really get some chunk on them ... at least as chunky as a tiny peanut of a girl can get. :) love love love her so much!

Happy one month birthday :)

Favorite Expressions by Chase:

"Day go, Mama!" = there you go, Mama!

"Uh Oh Me!" = Chase is doing something that is 'uh oh'

"Mon! Mon!" = Come on, follow me!

"Duk!" = Stuck or Truck or Duck... depending on the context

"Oh....My!" = He looks at his mess and exclaims it ;)

"Ase, Ase" while patting his chest = Chase saying his name because he wants something (he kind of put it together with the word 'please' in sign language), now used mostly when he wants to hold Ami :)

"Doo!" = Two, anything more than one is two in his mind... a flock of birds is 'Doo!' and a pair of shoes is 'Doo shoos!'

"Ai Ni" = 'Wo Ai Ni' which means 'I love you' in Chinese

Chase, you are so loving and kind... I can tell even though you are just a toddler. You love your little sister, even though you sometimes want to drive trucks on her head, or sit on her while she is in her bouncy seat.

I love how your hair makes one big curl at the back, while the rest of your hair just goes wild :)

I love how active you are, even though it makes me tired to chase after you. You are so coordinated and agile, I rarely have to worry about you falling or getting into scrapes. I really need to put you into some type of sport or tumbling! I love how you can kick or throw a ball with surprising accuracy. I love how chill you are with sharing toys (for the most part!), or having them taken from you. A calm spirit is a virtue! I understand when you get frustrated sometimes, because you can't do things that Mama can - balancing toys, rolling play-doh into balls, working the tv correctly. I hope I can help teach you patience :)

I love you, you will always be my buddy, my little man, my Chase-boy :)

Password: Chase1

Chase and his Trains from Mel Tsai on Vimeo.

A snippet into our afternoon... Trains, trucks, and conversation with Mama. :)

Ami's got CURLS!?!?!

If I were one of those girls who squealed with delight and danced in little circles, I think I would be doing that right now...

except I am NOT, nor will I ever be...

So I took A BUNCH of photos...

That is more my style :)

We are planning to go to B**Rs tonight (a social event at Tepper), to show off the kiddos to Jeff's classmates and co-workers. And I thought "hey, I should totally wash Ami's hair, because she hasn't had a bath for two weeks." Side note: Please don't assume I should be put under the 'bad mom' category, because hey, babies really don't get dirty, and they cry a LOT when they are naked (at least mine do), so the less baths, the more I keep my sanity, just sayin'.

But anyway, her hair is just kind of greasy from my fingers needing to stroke it all the time, I seriously HAVE to touch her thick black hair every time I am holding her. So after Chase and I got all cleaned up for the day, I decided to give her a quick scrub down. Ami's hair has been a bit wavy, and so I was already thinking in my head how fun it would be if it was curly, but not really thinking it would ever come true, with my stick straight hair of childhood, and Jeff's straight as a Kooshball hair, I figured there was no way...

and then I added shampoo...

and oh my, those curls just started popping up left and right! Thick, tight little curls all over her head! :) I love, LOVE, LOVE them!

I really hope they stay.

I really don't know how to work with curly hair though, I am going to have to get pointers from my friend Kim, who has crazy awesome curly hair.

The sides of her hair are already starting to flatten from even just taking the photos, and I guess it is probably just a matter of time before the top of her head is straight again from me touching her gorgeous black hair.

Please don't go away curls, I really, REALLY want you to stay :)