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Here’s Austen and Mommy smiling at each other. A precious moment. No crying for milk involved. 🙂

Austen in a pretty outfit from Uncle Rin.

Daljit, Kimball & 3-month-old Devan visited today. It’s the first time Devan and Austen met. They both slept a lot but I’m sure it won’t be long until they’re running around playing with each other.
It was nice to see them and interesting to see how other parents tend to their babies. Kimball liked to talk to Devan in Chinese and then repeat in English. Like Austen, Devan will have the benefit of growing up in a multil-lingual household except Devan will probably learn 3 languages: English, Punjabi & Chinese.
We look forward to visiting them soon in their Brooklyn home.

During Austen’s pediatrician appointment, as the nurse was approaching her with the Vaseline-covered anal thermometer, Austen made the biggest and loudest poopie ever, soaking her diaper with a puddle of baby poopies.  The nurse backed off, “Alright, I guess we won’t do this right now.”  Mommy and Daddy think this was a strategic move on Austen’s part, although the persistent nurse returned to complete her anal probe.

Uncle Rin stayed over for 2 days to help babysit. He quickly earned the title Nanny R-I-N. When Austen needed to be soothed, he applied a special technique (the 6th “S”): singing in Italian. Despite his singing, Austen calmed down. He would say it was a direct result of the singing. Who are we to argue with the Nanny?

Austen also went in for her one month pediatrician visit yesterday. Everything checked out well. The ped. told us to start baby-proofing the house now; oh joy.

The obligatory baby details:

Weight: She went from 7 lbs 6 oz at 5 days old to 9 lbs 14 oz in about one month.
Length: She grew almost 2” in length (from 20″ to 21.75″)
Head: She grew from 13.5” to 15”

Austen is also starting to roll a little from her back to her side. Not enough to get on her stomach just yet but it looks like it’s going to happen soon. While this may be good from a developmental perspective, it means we have to watch her even closer now (i.e. no more “Austen, stay put. I’ll be right back!”).

Aunt Holly & Uncle Tod sent Austen this Bumbo chair. Although a little young, Austen seems to tolerate it (for very short periods),

Austen turns one month old today. It’s gone by pretty quickly and I’d like to think we made some progress in baby care. Although only one month old, she’s grown and is no longer the newborn baby we remember bringing home.

She’s improved her sleeping time from 60 minutes throughout the night (during the first week) to 2-4 hour sleep cycles now.

She now enjoys pooping or peeing after or during diaper changes. Note: girls can also pee with enough force to sprinkle Daddy.

Aunt Holly will be happy to hear Austen gets (almost) daily floor time on her playmat. While face down, Austen’s learned to pick up her head and turn it to the other side although there’s no real reward for her doing so as she continues to grunt and struggle to move her head to find that all-elusive comfy position.

Austen continues to sleep in bed with us using her snuggle nest; Mommy worries Daddy will roll over since Daddy seems to pass out very quickly into a deep sleep. Daddys refutes this charge but is unable to prove it. Soon(?), we’ll start to transition Austen into her bassinet and eventually her crib.

Austen went to two restaurants so far; one in NYC and one local one. She basically slept through both meals.

Austen also recently got to take her first bath with Mommy (after her umbilical cord stump fell off). She seemed to enjoy being in water and from the looks of things, will quickly surpass Daddy’s swimming skills. (Daddy has plans to take more lessons to the point of being able to surf; it may not be realistic but we all have to reach far!)

It won’t be long until her new cousin arrives and the four cousins will be running around together getting into all sorts of girly mischief. We’re all looking forward to it!

This weekend, Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Rin visited and took care of Austen allowing Mommy & Daddy to get some much-needed sleep, especially since this was Daddy’s first week back to work. They’ve been coming each weekend to help out: babysitting, cooking, cleaning, etc.

Uncle Rin watched the ‘Happiest Baby on the Block’ DVD and decided to use the ‘milkshake’ technique to pacify Austen. It works everytime and makes for some funny faces also.

Mark, Jen & Emma visited this afternoon. We had fun playing with Emma & Austen. Emma’s certainly getting to be a big girl now. Although a little shy at first, she quickly became playful, especially after getting some M&Ms. She read each ‘M’ before she ate it and even shared her candy with everyone.

Uncle Mark introduced Austen to her bouncy chair. She seemed to enjoy it and paid careful attention to Uncle Mark’s commentary.

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