fanny
Dear Ethan,
On Oct 22, 2008, you gave me the toughest job in the world that works the longest hours. Yet I’ve already missed the first day when I started doing this job.
You were born so dark (did I go to beach too often when I was pregnant) and tiny, maybe a bit too skinny since you came 3 weeks early. But your huge round eyes have already proven that you will be a handsome little guy. When the babies next to our room tried to shatter the hospital building by their non-stop crying, you remained so quiet looking around. I totally fell in love with your calm personality.
As an inexperienced mom, I was really worried that you had serious jaundice and you needed to stay in a phototherapy light box for 2 days. Someone should’ve told me earlier that jaundice is very common to Asian babies and there’s nothing to worry about! I couldn’t stop my tears when you were put into the incubator-like box which only reminded me of those babies who have life threatening illness. But the funny thing was that you did enjoy lying in there, my boy!!! You were like sun-bathing on a beach, and you looked so hilarious with that eye mask on! Your aunt called you “little melon” because your eye mask resembled foam net for fruits in the market.
Every 3-hour feeding was not easy. Especially for you little hungry monster, it could sometimes be every 2 hours. Late night ones was the hardest. Like daddy like son, you were such an owl who wanted a little play time after every late night meal. With my very low energy level and your daddy’s very low EQ level, how could we keep up with you little monster! So, when your father kept yelling at everything, I kept yelling at him. FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!
You probably thought you had enough, you had to give us some good night sleep, and helped out a little bit on our fights. So on the day you turned 3 months old, you suddenly started sleeping through the night. You even stayed in bed until noon sometimes, so I could spend some time reading paper and cooking. Such a sweet baby you are! How could any mother not love you?!
Oh, how can I not mention about your “poop fountain”? Remember, poop and pee stay in diaper! Not free-flying everywhere on the wall or carpet, not on my cloth definitely! You probably still had hard time to remember it, because you really enjoyed having your yellow-orange poop erupted like a very speedy rocket whenever I was changing your diaper. Though frustrated by the mess, I’d melt down right away when I saw your mischievous smile.
And yes, you are such a happy baby with lots of facial expressions. You love to smile!!!! You giggle when we make funny sound, you smile when I sings, you enjoy watching me cook, you coo when I talk to you. Sometimes I wonder if you really find it funny, or you just throw us something to make us feel good of attempting to make you laugh. But those chuckles that only your daddy can draw from you are so real and heart-warming that no one can deny.
When you wake up in the morning, you love to play some 180-degree turn-around or roll-over games by yourself. By the time you see me come into your room, you smile! Ethan, it’s your morning smiles that make me get out of the bed right away no matter how tired I am.
Both me and your father are so thrilled to witness your every happy moment. It makes us love you more than you could possibly know, and you will not understand until you have your own child. If you really want to enjoy parenthood like we do now, please don’t have child when you are still a teenager. Or you will regret it.
Love,
Mommy