Mason is 1 month old!

Happy 1 month birthday to my bro Mason!  Here's what he's been up to in his first month:

• Crying. I dunno why he cries so much, but he does.  And he's really good at it.  Sometimes he cries so much that he loses his voice and all you get is a hoarse or silent cry.  All his crying doesn't seem to phase daddy, but mommy always frowns and looks really sad when that happens. I've gotten used to his crying too. It was hard at first, especially at night when his crying would wake me up.
• Eating. Mason eats like a champ just like me! It must be genetic.
• Pooping & peeing.  Those newborn diapers sure a tiny.  I bet that's why Mason is always getting his diaper changed.  If he had a bigger diaper, then he wouldn't need to change his diaper so often.
• Sleeping. He's not as good a sleeper as I was at his age. It looks like he didn't inherit the Tang sleep anywhere gene. He likes to be wrapped up like a baby burrito (aka swaddled).  Mommy says it calms him down and helps him sleep longer.
• Being held. Mason doesn't like to be put down EVER. He likes being held all the time. When I was Mason's age, I could just hang out or sleep wherever mommy and daddy put me.    
• Bath time. Mason really likes baths. I think they relax him.  I've heard that bathes can be relaxing, but I don't get it.  To me bath time is fun...splashing in the water and playing with toys. I'm gonna have to teach him that when he gets old enough.

Dim sum birthday party

My buddy Greyson turned one recently.  To celebrate, his parents threw a dim sum birthday party.  I've never had dim sum before, but I've read about it in a book that my friend Adrienne gave me.  While it was mostly adults at the party, I did get to see some of my friends: Edison, Abby, Ky & Sienna.

Mommy says it was pretty fancy dim sum because there was assigned seating, centerpieces at all the tables, a pre-ordered menu and three cakes.  Yup, you read that right - three cakes!  Plus instead of us giving him gifts, he gave us gifts.  Auntie Char says they're party favors, but I've never received a wrapped party favor before.

Grey's party was also Mason's first social gathering.  He cried the entire way from home to the restaurant and back. But he did great at the party.  He slept the entire time in his car seat.  Mommy and daddy were amazed because he's never done that before.  It must be because it was really loud in the restaurant. 

Happy Birthday Greyson!  Thanks for inviting me to your party and for the gift!

Happy Year of the Dragon!

Or year of the daddy because daddy is a dragon.  We had a very low key Chinese New Year dinner.  Po-Po came over and we had some traditional Chinese New Year food including steamed fish, dumplings, and new year's cake.  She also gave Mason and me a red envelope (hong bao) with money in it. I was more interested in the envelope than what was inside. Mommy says that'll probably change as I get older. 

Before Po-Po gave me my red envelope, I had to wish her a happy new year in Chinese. Mason didn't have to wish her happy new year, but that's because he can't talk yet.  He just cries right now.  (Mommy and daddy say he's really good at that.)  So Mommy taught me how to say, "Gong xi fa cai. Hong bao na lai."  I could say each phrase by itself pretty good.  But when Mommy tried to get me to say both phrases together, I'd only say the last two words of each sentence. Maybe next year I'll be able to put it all together.

Since I didn't know what "Gong xi fa cai. Hong bao na lai" meant, Mommy explained it to me. Gong xi means congratulations. Fa cai means to be prosperous or make money.  When you put them together it basically means wishing you a prosperous new year.  The second sentence means give me the red envelope please!  So, Gong xi fa cai to everyone!

Meal train

Since Mason's come home we've had lots of visitors.  And they all bring food!  Mommy called it a meal train.  Huh? I thought trains were toys that you play with or vehicles that you ride. When did trains involve bringing food to someone's house?

Mommy explained that a meal train is where people sign up to bring food over to someone's house. Edison's mommy organized our meal train with a lot of our friends like Greyson's mommy, Matthew's mommy, Kyden & Sienna's mommy, Abby's mommy, Chloe's mommy and auntie Aimee. I still didn't quite get it. But that's okay.  It was fun having people come over because I got to hang out with my friends.  They also got to meet baby Mason.

Mommy and daddy were grateful to have such great friends and really appreciated not having to cook or figure out where dinner was going to come from.  Thanks everyone!

Life as a big brother

Boy being a big brother is hard work.  In addition to maintaining my busy schedule of daycare, Little Gym and swim class, I've been helping mommy and daddy take care of him. I already told you about rescuing him from life as a stuffed monkey.  Well, I help out in a lot of other ways too.

When he cries (and he cries a lot), I let mommy know that baby's crying.  Then I run over to the pack and play, lean over the edge, reach my hand out to pat him and say, "It's okay. I know. I know."  When he needs a diaper change, I give mommy a diaper and throw the dirty one into the diaper pail. When he's finished with his bottle, I bring the bottle to the sink so mommy or daddy or grandma can wash it.

I've also been showing him the ropes.  For example, Mason's not a fan of the car seat.  He cries every time mommy or daddy put him in it.  But he has to ride in it when we go in the car, which makes our car rides not so fun and feel much longer than they actually are.  So, I decided to show him that it's not so bad.  See...it's not so bad.

Is Mason a baby monkey?

Someone needs to tell daddy that Mason's not a monkey baby.  I think he's confused because he stuck him with the giant stuffed monkeys in my play area.  He even took a bunch of pictures of Mason hanging out with the monkeys.  I thought for sure mommy would've fixed the situation.  But when daddy showed her the pictures, she said they were cute.  What?!  I'm going to have to have a talk with mommy and daddy.  Leave it the big brother to rescue Mason. I hope this isn't the beginning of a trend.

They're Home!

Hooray!  Mommy and Mason came home today.  I wanted to give mommy a big hug, but she kept saying that I had to be gentle because she had an owie.  Unlike me, Mason screamed the minute mommy put him in the car seat.  Mommy said he cried until they got on the freeway.  Hope this doesn't last because car rides with Mason won't be any fun. 

The only one in our family who hadn't met Mason yet is Tachi.  Daddy said Tachi looked sad and depressed when Mason came home.  Mommy thinks it's because Tachi probably knows that he just got knocked down another notch in our pack hierarchy.  Either that or he knows there's going to be another little person chasing him, pulling his tail and running into him while he sleeps on the floor. I don't know why Tachi would be sad to have someone else "play" with him.  I have lots of fun playing with him.

Twins?!

Siblings sometimes resemble each other and might share similar personality traits. Since Mason has joined our family, people keep trying to figure out if we look similar.  So, Daddy dug out a photo of me when I was Mason's age to compare.  When he showed mommy, she could tell right away who was who.  The nurse and lab tech who were in the room thought we were twins!  Come on, I look way cuter than Mason.  What do you think?  Can you tell who's who?  Do we look like twins?

Picture A

Picture B

Here's a couple of things that we have in common:

• Like me, baby bro was born with a lot of hair.  It's still too early to tell if Mason will be rockin' my stick up hair style yet.  
• Thanks to daddy, we were both born tongue tied and had to get frenectomy.  The good news is that he had his done on the day he was born, which will help him eat better. Hopefully, he won't go on a boob strike like I did. Mommy says I traumatized her when I did that. 

So how are we different?  Well, unlike me, baby bro looks like he has normal sized feet.  Guess he'll have to get his very own new shoes when he starts walking.  Daddy's not too happy about that.  He was hoping to save a couple bucks by having Mason get all my hand me downs.  I'm sure mommy, Grandma and aunties will make sure that Mason has some new things just for him.

Happy 2012!

With all the excitement over Mason, I forgot that it's a new year!  We didn't do anything special this year to welcome the new year.  In fact, everyone was asleep before midnight.  Grandma and Grandpa went to bad shortly after I did.  Mommy and Daddy went to sleep as soon as the nurses took Mason to the nursery for the night.  In fact, I think the only person who was awake to greet the new year was Mason!

We missed the new year's day festivities with Daddy's family in Sacramento.  Uncle Jeff, Auntie Jeanette and Ethan came to visit.  So, I got to hang out with Ethan for the afternoon.  They also stopped at the hospital to meet baby bro Mason.  Ethan and I were having so much fun that we decided to stay at home with Grandma and Grandpa. 

I'm looking forward to more fun and adventures in 2012, especially now that Mason is part of our family!