10 lbs. 5oz.
123 in.

2 mo. doctor’s visit:
she received 3 more shots and she wasn’t happy. after receiving her first shot, she wailed in surprised agony, clinging to me afterwards. she ended up getting her first fever as a result of the injections so we ended up giving her Tylenol’s infant drops to alleviate her high temperature. she behavior became sluggish, having changed from her boisterous self. We gave her the drops every 4 hours and by the next day, her temperature returned to normal and she began to smile again.

neck support:
perze showed me that when he carries her on her belly, allowing freedom for her to support her head, she successfully does manage to hold it erect. it doesn’t droop down at all, and although she still hasn’t completely mastered it when she sits down, her neck control is increasingly strengthening. Even when we carry her upright, she can hold her head straight. It only dips down because she still has no vertebral control.

baby acne:
we went to her ped. and he suggested using olive oil, so perze generously applied it and claims that her baby acne disppeared because of the oil. but for records sake, we also did use it with Aveeno’s Baby Lotion. Now in her 2nd month, her face is as soft as a baby’s face ’should’ be.

first common cold:
perze was somewhat sick during the week and we believe it may have been due to this. This morning, we woke up to her sounds of conjestion and coughing. i’ve looked up ways to treat it, but the only help you can give is to prop her up when she sleeps, to make sure she gets sufficient fluid and rest, to use saline drops if her mucus dries, and to use the mucus plug to suck out the mucus. to soften it, you can also by a vaporizer as well as a humidifier. i’m just hoping she gets better by tomorrow.

learning flashcards:
every day, i show her flashcards of colorful pictures with corresponding words in the back. i show her each picture while saying its name a few times. she seems to be very focused because she hardly fusses in the middle of our lessons.

baby sounds:
she loves to play, and during these times, she’ll usually give a slew of sounds like “ne, le, aiiooo” and sometimes will break into lovable playful shrieks. also her smiles are so abundant now. she even smiles at us first thing when she wakes. perze seems to be best at making her smile.

this verse seems so simple.  knowing myself, if i had read this years ago, far from who i am now, i would probably dismiss this verse from further meditation because of its obvious simplicity.  but when i read it now, it has this affection about it that requests some time of reflection because i can really relate to it; we all can relate to it and find substancial beauty behind it. 

in remembering all my faults as a child of my parents, i am humbled because i know all the disappointments that i’ve rendered to them.  they’ve experienced my sins, my weaknesses, my rebelliousness, and yet, although hurt by my actions, i surely know and experience their unconditional love for me because i am their child.  i was covered with their love that first day i was born to them.

now that i am a mother, the meaning of this verse hits deeper because i know now what it feels like to be a parent.  i know the sacrifices a parent has to make for the nurturing of his/her child.  i know all the hopes and care are given so that the child will grow healthy and happy, with an awareness of others and him/herself.  sometimes, i look at emma and i’m floored because i know she may bring me a lot of heartache one day, but i will always love her and be her home.  i will forgive her for her adolescent behavior and questionable decisions because she is mine.  her life was set apart to perze and i, and that’s why there can never be abandonment, only investments.  now having the experience of being a mom, i can testify of the fears i have that she may be hurt- physically or emotionally, of the hope i have that she will grow into a healthy life and purpose, and of a mysterious love a parent has for her child.

and God designed it that way so we can gain even a bit of understanding through that paradigm.  i am thankful that He calls me His own, His child, because in that bond, i know of his unconditional love for me, with a love even more immense than i can imagine and have with my own child. 

I also know that this world has corrupted God’s plan for the relationship between a parent and his child, and sometimes unfortunately, a child may not have had the opportunity to experience love from a parent(s).  Because of sin, God’s original design was begrimed, but thankfully His love as Father is made perfect.  His love for his children expands exponentially, is incomparable and indefectible.

<proud parent mode on>

click to navigate to her album 2mo.2wk

Hi. My name is Jonah, I’d like a one way ticket to Tarshish please.

I can smell the crisp salty air as I was walking towards the boat. I see people all around me minding their own business. Did He talk to them too? Why me? Of all the people in this world, why me? He knows I can’t go there. I don’t want to go there. Those people killed my family and I’m supposed to go and ask them to repent?

…

He had reason why He didn’t want to go. A compelling reason at that. But God asked him to. That should have been reason enough to overturn all other underlying arguments why Jonah should have went to Nineveh. Instead, he went to Joppa and hopped on a boat for Tarshish. In the next few blogs I will be working on the comparisons and contrasts between this reluctant prophet and with what has been going on in my life. No, I am not a prophet nor anything but I know what it feels like to be called for something and ran away from it.

On a different note. The Eagles won against the 49ers, 5 TD’s from D-Mac. 42-3. It looked like a Madden Game. He could’ve easily made two or three more but they had to let him sit and let Detmer take over. Surprisingly, Koy Detmer engineered another drive to the endzone resulting to a Lamar Gordon TD. Oakland, you’re next. I can’t wait until we go against the Giants … urgh.

The Redskins were playing as if it’s the last game of their franchise. Man that was an awesome win. I have to tip my hat to Joe Gibbs. Talk about being cool under fire. Up until that night, Bill Parcells was 77-0 when he has a 13 point lead going into the 4th Quarter.

Goat of the week: QB Daunte Culpepper(Minnesota Vikings), 5 INT! 0 TD!

Offensive player of the week: QB Donovan McNabb, 5 TDs 0 INT 23/29 342 Yds

That’s all folks.

last night i got the funniest phone call. my phone rings. i pick up. then this lady with her “i’m trying to impress you with my hot and sexy voice” starts talking. here’s how the conversation went:

me: Hello
her: Hi. Do you remember me?
me: Excuse me? who is this?
her: Oh, you don’t remember, that’s too bad

at this point emma starts to fuss because I was holding her in my other hand

me: I’m sorry, what number were you calling?
her: XXX-XXX-6223
me: Oh, you dialed XXX-XXXX-2663
her: I’m sorry.
me: it’s alright. bye. [hangs up]

two seconds later [Phone rings]

me: Hello
her: Hi.
me: I think you just called a few moments ago.
her: I don’t understand, I know I’m calling the right number
me: 6223 right?
her: yes
me: well, you dialed 2663 again.
her: Oh, sorry. [hangs up]

15 seconds later

me: Hello
her: did I dial the wrong number again?
me: i think so.
her: I’m sorry, i guess the numbers are too close to each other
me: (get a homer simpson phone for crying out loud) It’s ok, goodbye.
her: bye

Then emma starts crying.

special mention: everyone should read ray-ray’s blog today, you crazy funny brudda.

On to the main blog.

Emma’s been fussy lately, what else is new. I’m still very amazed at how much this girl has grown since we brought her home from the hospital. She’s tipping the scale at around 10 pounds now. She talks back if you talk to her and reaaaallly loves attention. She would coo, goo, and make all sorts of baby sounds as if she is talking back. She smiles when you smile at her and sticks her tongue out once in a while. She is so beautiful. I can’t wait until my parents see her in person, I know they will fall in love head over heels with her.

On a more important topic , Donovan McNabb got injured in the last game and the league officials are reviewing the hit that caused the injury and marked him as Questionable/DTD on this sunday’s game against the 49′ers. On the other hand CB Kevin Mathis of the Falcons got slapped with a $10,000 fine for starting that scuffle with Eagle MLB Jeremiah Trotter. As of this moment Andy Reid sent a “complaint” to the officiating committee for that decision on Monday night that ejected both Mathis and Trotter. Turns out, Trotter never punched back. Great job officials, even with the replay you still can’t see clearly. On a side note, Mathis has been placed in the IR List because of an injury from practice (Torn ACL). Past is past.

the rain sounds so peaceful. emma’s falling asleep slowly and the apartment is clean. i’m waiting for perze to come home, and i’ve just had my cup of coffee.

i’ve been trying to decorate our apartment little by little, and although i know that we’ll move out sometime, hopefully next year, i still want to make it home, and make it presentable whenever we have company. i’ve been using my imagination and inovation since we don’t have a very big budget for decor.

i was cleaning out some old thigs from when perze and i were still courting and i found some old love letters that i wrote to him. those were the days when we celebrated our monthsaries by eating out and getting small tiny presents for each other, things that were inexpensive but those that caught our individual fancies, like a book or a dvd. i would spend time crafting out a homemade card and personal hallmark message. i used hammers and scissors, paste, printers, papers and vellums, eyelets and markers…hahah…and that was when we were dating. now that we’re married, i’m still in awe…and although the papers were replaced by pots and pans, the printer with a vaccum, the vellum with rugs and curtains, the eyelets with nails, the paste with detergent, the markers with brushes, the vellum with bills and a budget, i still love him as the girl who had the butterflies, but even deeper now.

it takes me a while to remember the problems we had when we were dating. I remember perze and i having quarrels, disagreements, but not enough to give them their own corner now or even a conclusive name and identity. they were never too big for us to even suggest terminating our relationship. in our time of courtship, that has never been a topic to put on the table, which took a lot of commitment and patience.

i realize that as i get older, i can sometimes miss those days with the butterflies, when things are new and exciting because new love is unpredicatable, but now i’d rather long for our love to grow older. pastor ding was right when he said at my sister’s wedding, that the love story really begins at the altar, because all those challenges that you thought you went through while dating will not compare to those that you face in marriage. It takes more work, more sacrifice and more patience, more revisions of yourselves, more communication and more compromise when two becomes one…when two different people who’ve been their own selves for all those years, to accomodate another whole and become one united body.

ravi zacharias says it best, “nothing is better than new love than old love.” and as the years grow, as we continue to move around, and as we continue to build, i’ll always smile and be proud of those tokens and reminders of love letters of the past when we were young, but i’ll be even prouder when our marriage and love can be a testament when we’re old.

it’s not that i’m lucky or i’ve deserved this, it takes a lot of work to make things work…i encourage everyone in the same way. God loves you and will continue to work in what you desire, just trust him.

I just upgraded our Movable Type blog engine to their latest and greatest version(3.2). I’m impressed especially with the instant handling of system wide plicies like trackbacks, comments and stuff. I still have to read on it’s other capabilites when i have the time. i’ll give a full review when i get a lot of stuff off my plate.