Tiny Iron Fists

"The Patter of Tiny Brains" Curated by Doug Harvey (04.06.12 - 05.27.12)

Lulu and I participated in Doug Harvey's "The Patter of Tiny Brains". Our contribution is the recording of Lulu's in utero heartbeats.

Eye Spy 2010

Even with the loss of Silvio's grandfather Marco Rea, my father Lieutenant Colonel Chuong G. Hong and our beloved cat-dog Godzuki, 2010 was the year of love. So many people surrounded us. And so many people openly loved Lulu.

THANK YOU to our extended family (born-into and adopted) for your friendship. 2011's going to be the best yet!

Milestone: Crawling

I have been looking forward to Lulu being mobile since the day she was born. My friends insisted that when the day came, I would pray for the good old days of her being immobile. They were wrong. I love chasing Lulu around our home and more importantly, I love the independence she exudes from having the freedom to go where she pleases.

Lulu learned to crawl a little early and I was lucky to remember to track and document her progress. In the first video above, Lulu was newly six months old. She was already very good at sitting upright and quickly learned how to prop herself up on all fours from laying on her stomach. She would get up on her hands and knees, rock back and forth, and eventually propel herself forward. It wasn't graceful and she often looked like a swimmer diving into a pool. I gotta give it up to the kid for being fearless, lunging forward. This initial stage was exceptionally frustrating for Lulu. You could tell she wanted to move around, but just couldn't get her limbs to do exactly what she wanted.

About a week later, Lulu continued to experiment with her footing. She was better at thrusting herself forward but still seemed flustered at her lack of ability to move around much. In this fairly long video below, she still can't do much.

Lulu improved slowly over a month's time. It took her awhile to gather strength to move forward but she was finally able to get from Point A to Point B.  In the video above she starts several times in the downward dog position, eventually inching her way forward with a commando-crawl. Her physical efforts are matched by her vocal ones.

A couple of days later, Lulu is barely crawling at all. She is assuming the position but is flustered, vocalizing her dismay with every attempt to move. I feel badly that she is working so hard with so little results.

A couple of weeks later (at two months), Lulu has become a more confident crawler. For the most part, she can get to where she wants to go, fairly quickly. In the video above, Lulu easily crawls to Silvio after inspecting crap on the floor. 

Nearly three months from the start, the crawl is intentional, confident and quick. Lulu has mastered "cross-crawling" -- the ability to move one arm and the opposite leg together while moving forward and no longer seems to have any problems getting where she wants to go.

It's been fascinating watching Lulu learn to crawl. This milestone was fun to watch unfold. Just as quickly, she has learned to stand up and is now cruising. Next up, walking! And yes, I've got my running shoes ready!

More information about crawling can be found here:
Developmental Milestone: Crawling

Ask Dr. Sears: Late Crawler

Dr. Greene: Crawling

Lulu's Circus Audition Tape

Lulu is an extremely physical baby. She has good balance and has always wanted to move around even when she couldn't on her own. Our kid loves to hang out, upside down. A couple of weeks ago, Silvio decided to let Lulu's fingers touch the ground. When they did, she took off running... on her hands! We recorded this video in case Lulu ever wanted to run off with the circus. Enjoy!

Outfit: Kumquat Baby Onesie.

Billabong Baby

As tempting as it might be, I am too frugal to buy new clothes for Lulu while she's under one year old. She'll outgrow it all too fast and I've inherited enough gently worn hand-me-downs from my family and friends, that we are sharing them with five other babes. Don't fret. Lulu's received plenty of beautiful new dresses, shirts, pants, shoes, etc. as gifts, we just didn't buy them for her.

In her first six months, we've purchased only one item of clothing for Lulu. We bought her a turquoise Billabong skull tee from local surf/skate/snow shack, ZJ Boarding House for $15. We loved the graphic and color combo and felt it was representative of our neighborhood.

Buying children's clothes can be dangerously fun. I look forward to picking up a few more choice items for Lulu in the years to come.