Second week...

Karina is getting close to being 2 weeks old and adjusting well to life in the Yuen house. We're also adjusting well to life with her.

We are very lucky that so far she has been very considerate of her mommy and daddy's sleep needs. She gets up at night to feed but otherwise goes right back to sleep. In fact, she sleeps pretty much all day. At first we thought that this was due to her jaundice. But since the last blood test this past Monday, her pediatrician declared her jaundice over and Karina remains her sleepy self. Here is a common sight--Karina yawning.


And when she is awake, she's content to look around and wave her arms around like windmills.


Eliana's Aunt Ruth came over and brought Eliana a t-shirt that says "I'm a big sister." Karina got a matching litle sister shirt. Eliana absolutely had to put it on right away.

As a big sister, Eliana's motherly insticts are kicking in. Here she is reading a book to her dolly.

Eliana follows Karina everywhere. When it was bathtime for Karina, Eliana followed and took the opportunity to brush her teeth just because. Eliana has been able to take off her pants by herself for a couple of weeks now. We're still working on being able to put them on. Shirts are still a little ways off.

Eliana really likes music and has a good memory for songs. Here is Eliana singing some made up song.

First week at home...

This is Karina's first week at home. Because she has jaundice, we have had to go back to the hospital for a blood test almost every single day. They've also had us use a "bili-blanket," which is a blanket-type thing that emits blue light that is supposed to help get rid of the jaundice. We will have to go back tomorrow (Friday) for another heel prick--hopefully this will be the last time. The doctor also told us to feed Karina as often as possible and hopefully she will plump up in no time.
So far, Eliana's adjustment to being a big sister is more than we could have hoped for. She is extremely interested in this little person that now lives in our house and studies Karina intently. Every morning, Eliana rushes into our bedroom to see "Baby Karina."For now, we lay Karina onto our bed to sleep. Eliana likes to climb on to check things out. It is hard to contain her excitement and keep her from trampling over her sister.
Eliana likes to watch Karina's facial expressions and copies the sounds she makes. She also likes to copy other things... We keep Karina in mittens so she won't scratch herself. Eliana decided that she needed to wear her mittens too. (Nevermind that it was 70 degrees outside.)

Out of everyone in the family, Karina seems most used to Eliana's voice. Whether Eliana is talking, screaming (which she has certainly been doing more of, as she adjusts to us not giving her quite so much attention, especially Emily), crying, laughing, or shouting, Karina has the capacity to completely ignore it and carrying on with what she's doing--which is usually sleeping. In this video, we are all congregated in the bathroom during Eliana's bath when she launches into a long monologue. Emily and Elvin thought this was funny. To Karina, on the other hand, she's been listening to Ellie make noise so long, so she is completely oblivious. (Just to clarify, we only know about 50% of what Eliana is saying in this video. Elvin was telling Emily about something, and Eliana wanted to be the "speaker" instead, so she said "Papai stop talking Mommy" and started her own discourse, making sure not to stop, so we couldn't talk.)

Welcome home Karina!

Karina Mei-Li Yuen was born on 8/6/10 and we were able to come home the next day. She was 8 lb. and 6 oz. and 21 inches long. Emily is very tired but recovering well. It turns out that baby Karina (like Eliana) has a big head and so it took a long time for her to come out!

Her middle name, Mei-Li (美勵) means "beautiful encouragement" in Chinese.

While we were at the hospital, Emily's mom stayed with Eliana at our house. A few hours after Karina was born, Eliana came by to visit. By far, her favorite thing to do is to hold her little sister. (And other favorite things that Eliana likes to do are petting Karina, patting her, and trying to teach Karina sign language.)

When we came back home, Eliana was already home waiting for us. Here is her reaction; I was holding Karina in one arm and the camera in the other...

Karina has dark brown hair and medium brown eyes. One uncanny thing is that she is almost an exact replica of her older sister. When we compared Karina to a picture of Eliana when she was a baby, they looked almost identical.
So overall, we're doing well and happy to be back home again!

Daily life...

Eliana is overall a pretty good eater. She loves milk and some of her favorite foods are steak (with A1 sauce), white rice, watermelon, cheese, and frozen fruit such as berries or peach slices. She also loves butter and would eat it by itself if we let her. Here she is picking the butter off a slice of bread.

A couple weekends ago, we went to a Chinese restaurant that specializes in noodles. Eliana LOVES noodles. But the aftermath can be quite astounding. For every spoonful that makes it to her mouth, another spoonful falls onto the ground.

Eliana has noticed that there are infant diapers around the house now, in preparation for the baby coming. So one night, she decided that all her stuffed animals needed to wear diapers as well.

After putting on pajamas, we always brush her teeth. Her dolly came with us and needed her teeth brushed as well.

And the dolly's hat is always fun to play with. Except that when Eliana puts it on, she unwittingly blindfolds the doll.

2 years old!

Eliana turned two on July 14th! It seems like time has flown by. She had quite a special week, that started with a trip to Cold Stone. Emily signed her up at the Cold Stone website and she got a free ice cream for her birthday. Eliana got sweet cream with sprinkles mixed in, or "candy" as she calls it.

We then had a mini-party on Wednesday, which was her actual birthday. Emily's parents came over for the evening and we opened presents. She still doesn't fully understand the concept of presents, and is most interested in taking the bows off. She started the get the hang of it, though. We had cupcakes--she requested these because she thinks that's what you're supposed to have at a birthday. Later in the week, we had a full party on Sunday with her aunts, uncles, and cousins coming over. We had pizza (again at her request) and more cupcakes.

Finally summertime...

After one of the wettest and coldest springs in the past 10 years, it's finally summertime for good. So Eliana is enjoying all the summertime-type activities, including...

Picking raspberries in the backyard (but she doesn't eat them. She only likes them frozen.)


She went to the zoo again this past week, and enjoyed a snow cone.

Last week, she went to a park that had a merry-go-round. She liked that the horses went "up and down."

Eliana's cousins Millie and Abby slept over last weekend. Besides running around, pretending to cook things with the toy stove, and playing ball, they also read quietly.

And, as you'll see in the video, Eliana has become more and more independent. She picks out books to read to her animals in the backyard. She also likes playing "futebol" and chess with Elvin.

Happy 4th and Visit to the Zoo

We celebrated "July 4th" on Saturday the 3rd at Emily's parent's house. Eliana's cousins came over as well and they all played together in the backyard.

She ate an ice cream sandwich for dessert. The only problem was that 1/4 of it ended up on her shirt.

The neighborhood dog, Noodle, came over to visit. Noodle loves kids and likes the attention from Eliana. Eliana is getting over her apprehension of dogs...
On July 5th, we visited the Oregon Zoo. This is Eliana's second time to the zoo. The first time, when she was just barely one year old, she was a little too young and didn't really get much out of it. This time, she knew all the animals and requested them by name.

Here she is trying to hug the huge fish.

This zoo has a great petting area. Eliana loved petting the "nice goat" and his soft wool. Elvin, however, didn't like the goats--one of them tried to eat the corner of his jacket.

At the seal exhibit, a huge 6-foot long seal approached the glass.... Eliana thought this was a bit scary. We don't know where she learned this, but when she is scared, Eliana covers up her mouth.

All in all it was a fun trip to the zoo. We bought a 12-month pass--so we'll be going back!