Archived News

2005

December
  • Teaching Madeline to say "please" and "thank you" paid off when one night, after Phyllis tucked her in bed, she said "thank you, Mama" voluntarily.
  • Napping by oneself might not sound like a very interesting activity for a growing toddler. One day, Madeline was trying hard to see if nap could be delayed by asking Mommy to play with her. After trying the "need a hug" and "need a blanket" failed to get Mommy's attention, Madeline pretended to be a cat and started meowing. Too bad Mommy did not get fooled. We wonder what Madeline was going to come up with next time...
  • By now, Madeline could recognize the following body parts in English, Chinese, or both -- head, ear, eye, eye brow, nose, mouth, teeth (which she had 12), neck, elbow, shoulder, tummy, belly button, bottom, finger, thumb, leg, knee, and toe.
  • With Madeline's mild stomach virus and James' flu, holiday celebration went pretty low-key this season. However we did enjoy the get-togethers with some friends and looked forward to the arrival of 2006.


November

  • Phyllis' parents came to visit from Taiwan this month and had a great time with Madeline who definitely knew how to win the hearts of Grandpa and Grandma.
  • After taking the 1.5-year-break, James and Phyllis resumed their ballroom dance lesson in NYC. James seemed to need a total memory recall...
  • Madeline had started signing and saying "please (in English)" and "thank you (in Mandarin)." It cracked everyone up when Madeline all the sudden tried teaching her little stuffed pig doing the same during a pretend play.


October

  • After breastfeeding for 17 months, Madeline was weaned. The process was mentally and physically easy for both Madeline and Phyllis. Thinking back, Phyllis missed those cuddling times with Madeline but was very happy knowing that Madeline was growing up and getting more independent.
  • This month Madeline's first "real" sentence came and it was "sit down". It was a bit surprising to us because she said it in English. At home, James and Phyllis usually talked to her in Mandarin, except when reading stories. Guess she just picked it up from her classes outside the house.
  • Madeline's major achievements this month:
    • Recognized and said alphabets "M" and "O"
    • Showed interests in dressing herself and her stuffed rabbit, which had a diaper, socks and shoes on at all time per Madeline's request...
  • For some holiday spirits, the Shaw-Lin family went on a pumpkin-picking trip and enjoyed a hay-ride at the farm.
  • How could you resist not kissing this little bear on Halloween???


September

  • Now that Madeline officially switched from 2 naps to 1, there were more times during the day to play. This month, she went to the Children's Museum of Manhattan, Van Saun County Park Zoo and Warwick, NY for an overnight apple picking trip. In order to find an outlet for her growing energy, we started her in a gym class at Tumble Bee Gymnastics and she really enjoyed it.
  • Madeline's major achievements this month:
    • Gained enough weight to have her car seat switched to forward facing position
    • Said "more", "no, no", and continued to grow her vocabulary.
  • Our dear friend, Mrs. Shiu-mei Yang, a.k.a Yang Ma, passed away at New York-Presbyterian Hospital on September 21st, 2005. Yang Ma was a very special person to Phyllis, James and Madeline and will always be missed.


August

  • As Madeline got older, she started doing new things almost everyday. The list would be too long if we wanted to include everything so we decided to give you the shorter version:
    • Got up and down the highchair by herself
    • "Fed" her stuff animals
    • Loved to say "open," "up," "down" and "Pooh," her current favorite.
    • Did the baby sign language "wash hand," "face," "elephant," "cup," "poo poo," "key," "hot," "shoe" and "pain"
    • Had her first McDonald's dining experience
    • Danced when we played the CD from her music class


July

  • Madeline's major achievements this month:
    • Got up and down the sofa and beds by herself
    • Showed 1 finger when we ask her "how old is Madeline?" -- we didn't think she really knew the meaning of the question but believe that she knew that particular response made Mommy and Daddy very happy.
    • Pointed to belly bottom and leg when we ask her to
    • Pointed herself when we said "me" and others when we said "you"
    • Did the baby sign language "cat," "dog," "bear," "down," "bath," "book" and "so big"
    • One day when Mommy showed Madeline a picture of watches, Madeline thought for a minute then pointed at her wrist! We were very happy that Madeline had developed quite some memory and thinking capability
  • Tenafly Welcome! Committee where Phyllis volunteered hosted a pool party for Tenafly's new residents in July. Madeline got the opportunity to wear her too-cute-to-be-true swimsuit and had a wonderful time in the kiddie pool.
  • James took a short trip to Taiwan to attend the funeral of his grandfather who passed away at the age of 86.


June

  • Madeline's major achievements this month:
    • Get down from bed (not her own crib yet, thank goodness) by herself.
    • Point to nose, eyes, mouth, ears, teeth, feet when we ask her to.
    • Stand without support and walk by holding one hand. She took her first 2 steps without assistance on 6/28/2005, the same day she showed us how she climbed up staircases without us teaching her
    • Do the baby sign language "more," "no," and "no more," on top of the "milk" sign that she was doing months ago
  • On 6/7/2005, James obtained his U.S. citizenship. INS has been very efficient in processing James' application. His citizenship process took less than 4 years!
  • James attended ACL 2005 in University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. After arriving at the airport at the end of his trip, he was told that his flight got cancelled due to the weather. He had to wake up at 4 AM the next morning to catch an early flight. Just when he thought the ordeal was over, there was more to come. He went to work right after he got back to NJ, which happened to be the day that we had severe thunderstorm. In addition to the car being trapped in the flood for over 6 hours, the front plate got ripped away (DMV, anyone?). We were all very glad that he finally made it home before the day ended!


May

  • James' parents came for a short visit and met Madeline for the first time since she was born! Grandparents were not the only visitors to Madeline in May. Later the month, she also got a visit from roseola virus or its friend which gave Madeline several days of fever and rashes.
  • Madeline turned 1 this month! She loved her balloons and certainly enjoyed the frosting, with her 5 teeth, on the banana cake that Mommy made just for her. As Madeline got older, she became more understanding of what we were telling her. For one, she understood the meaning of "no, no" actually obeyed it (well, for the time being, anyway...)


April

  • Not only could Madeline go from sitting to standing and back to sitting position, she had also started cruising (walking by holding on to furniture).
  • Starting this month, Phyllis and James spent some time of their Sundays going to MusicTogether classes with Madeline. While Madeline still opted to be the observer, Mommy and Daddy got a chance to get off their feet and be silly doing the singing/dancing.


March

    Madeline got very busy growing this month, here were some notable achievements:
    • pressed buttons for music when we told her to and showed obvious responses to certain nouns
    • drank from straws
    • had 3 teeth
    • able to go from sitting to standing by holding on to her toys or someone
    • clapped her own hands
    • stacked cups though we had to help her distinguishing the cup sizes
    • developed preference in food though the preference changed on daily basis -- some days she only eats cheese and some days daikon...


February

  • Sometime this month, Madeline decided to give up her midnight feeding. That means she usually sleeps from 7:30 PM till 6 AM nowadays. Not only that, she can crawl forward and her 1st tooth is popping out. Way to grow, Madeline!


January

  • The Chinese name for Madeline has been decided and it is Shaw Pei-Han (邵珮涵, in GIF).
    Pei = "jade pendant"
    Han = "lenient and broad-minded"
  • This is a tough month for the Shaw-Lin household, health wise. First of all, Phyllis was partially and temporally deaf for several days after using the over-the-counter ear wax removal drops suggested by her primary physician during the routine health check-up. Apparently the ear wax decided to run for its life and in the WRONG direction. Then James got the flu and eventually passed it on to Madeline who suffered from high fever (up to 103.6 F) for 2 days. Thank goodness that we all recovered by the end of the month and ready to greet the Chinese New Year in February.