2021 - The Zhan Crew

Dec 27, 2021

Happy Holidays!

December 27, 2021 0
Happy Holidays!

Time flies by so fast. Can't believe my baby girl is already 3-month-old! She is getting bigger everyday! She is almost 13 pounds now! My son, on the other hand, is turning 3-year-old soon! I am having a hard time carrying him around. He is so big now! He also talks a lot nowadays. He's a big fan of big trucks and trains. Our house has turned into his toy land! Of course, both my babies got a lot of toys this Christmas! They are so spoiled I know. 

Our first Santa-Christmas Photo Shoot

Father and son bonding

Motherhood feels great

Christmas baby!

Nov 12, 2021

Doing Great

November 12, 2021 0
Doing Great
It's been a while since I last updated my blog. I've been busy with my baby girl and restoring our house. There are so many leaves nonstop falling. My baby girl, on the other hand, is growing fast. She's not even two-month-old yet! She's already 9 lbs! Average 2-month girls weigh about 11 lbs, so she is doing great!
My girl was supposed to be born after Halloween, but she made it before Halloween. This year she got to dress up as daddy's little cheerleader. 

My boy's first Halloween was in 2019. He dressed up as a sloth. Look! How cute he is!
I also made a memory book for the birth of my daughter and her experience at the NICU. Giving birth to her was quite an experience! Thanks to Mayo Clinic. Both of us are doing great!
The Zhan family is still expanding. We now have a family of 4. If we were to include our animals, we would have a family of 8! On the other hand, our 20 chickens are still alive! They are laying eggs for us every day. I came up with the idea of making waffle eggs. Each waffle egg takes three eggs to make!
Ok! That's it for this round! I will keep updating my blog! I guess it is good to record my memories. It starts to sound like the movie The Notebook. 😊

Oct 1, 2021

A Mayo Clinic Visit

October 01, 2021 0
A Mayo Clinic Visit
Don't even know where to start but I am so happy that I am still alive and well. Last Monday I was hospitalized for preeclampsia with severe features and the doctors said that I had to deliver the baby the following Monday. From last week till yesterday,  I was on meds and had numerous iv injections on my arms. Checking my arms today, I have bruises everywhere. I can't believe this pregnancy got me into the operating room several times. The doctors here at Mayo Clinic were angels. They helped me to deliver my baby in 9 minutes with only 5 pushes before my placenta got ruptured. Then I experienced hemorrhage but the doctors here were quick at spotting the ruptured placenta and immediately took it out to stop the bleeding.  I lost over 2 liters of blood and thanks goodness that Mayo Clinic has a great blood bank.  I immediately got the right type of blood and the antibodies I needed to recover from the blood loss. What a week! My baby girl is staying at the Mayo Clinic's NICU receiving the best care she needs to grow outside the womb. It makes sense that Mayo Clinic is the best hospital in the world! It really saves lives. 
Here are some more pictures of my baby Gabs.
Content baby sleeping in her mama's arms
Got her first bath in Mayo Clinic's NICU
This is an electronic memory book. This piece of memory will be forever remembered and recorded. 

Aug 15, 2021

Our Furry Babies

August 15, 2021 0
Our Furry Babies

We just got back from our grocery trip two hours ago, and now I am waiting for Jimmy's chicken soup to be cooked. Jimmy makes really good chicken soup. I am already drooling. Jimmy also got me a cartload of snacks. I know he is spoiling me! 

Iris learned to sunbathe in the hotel. She is living her best life here. She is always on vacation, especially when the cats are not around. She is the only attention seeker in the house!
Speaking of our cats, here is Jupiter and Selena. Selena is actually back in her own home. Jupiter is just hanging in her house, but Selena doesn't seem to mind much. 
Do you know which cat is this? Jedie! The social cat! He looks so flexible here. Is he practicing kung fu? I miss his soft fur and his creepy stares at night. 😜
Have I mentioned Mr Marley passed away in January this year? He had an enlarged heart. We think there was something outside spooked him. Now he is probably hanging out on Jesus' desk, instead of mine...
Oh, I recently got a Zhan Family mug from Shutterfly (the one on the left). The cup on the right was an old cup I designed a long time ago. It preserved all our happy moments together! 

Aug 12, 2021

True Confession

August 12, 2021 0
True Confession

My baby son has been away from me for a while now. Due to numerous reasons, he has to temporarily stay in Canada with his grandparents. I hope we can get more settled so that I can reunite with him! He has a baby sister coming up soon, and he already knows how to say sister!  He is so ready to be a big brother! 

He is not the only one that I miss! I also miss my kitties. They are still at our coworker's house. I miss their morning greetings and cozy snuggles at night. Fun facts: one of my cats can open doors; one of my cats can detect food in any packaging (sealed Jerky had been detected); one of my cats is very social with people. These three cats have totally different personalities. I miss them so much.
Our Zhan family continues to expand. Now we have 4 furry babies and 2 hooman babies. Shall we get more hooman babies? Hubby Jim wants 4, but I am not really sure. Giving birth is not fun.  My first baby is so naughty. I can't imagine having four kids like him in the house. I can already see this baby girl that I am having is going to be naughty, too. But guess what!? Jimmy's famous ancestor had 8 kids! CRAZY!
In the meantime, Iris loves to give dada big hugs! She is definitely beyond 120 pounds! She is really smart! She never jumps on me because she knows that I can't handle her. 

Aug 8, 2021

Happy Days

August 08, 2021 0
Happy Days

Next week marks the last week of my second trimester. I am already so big, so I am not sure how big this time I will get. The hunger situation is real. I've been craving for peanut butter crackers and the chickens from Chick-fil-A. I have also learned to buy snacks on Amazon Fresh, which will be delivered right to my door. You see, I am expecting myself to be a chubby and clumsy mama bear soon again. 

My son is still with his grandparents. He is so happy with his auntie Emma. They are having so much fun together. My baby is a naturally civil engineer. Well, he might have gotten his talent from his great great great great grandpa, Zhan Tianyou.  He can recognize shapes very well and put his blocks together without falling apart. He is a little boy of many talents just like his dada. I am very proud to be his mama. 

Jimmy recently saved two baby sparrows from our backyard. We successfully hatched them and now we are officially their adoptive parents. Jimmy is really good at feeding the babies. I also learned how to take care of them while Jimmy is away. In the meantime, our dog is getting used to the big city. She is very gentle now. We can even walk her on the streets! Here we went for a walk in Duke. It is a quite decent Japanese garden we have nearby!

Jun 29, 2021

Still Surviving in this COVID World

June 29, 2021 0
Still Surviving in this COVID World

It has been so long since I wrote a post. I should be documenting my COVID life. Many things have been changed but I am still the busy me. We are currently living in Durham and the summer here is very hot for a New Yorker like me. I am getting used to it by the day and my body is finally accepting the 90+ degrees weather. My big dog is also here with us. Due to her size, many city folks are scared of her. The thing is…the more terrified they are, the more my dog wants to engage with them. We got a whole bunch of new gears to train her to behave like a city dog. Well, at least she learned to not bark while other dogs are barking in their rooms. I should award her for being the most peaceful dog because seriously, she sleeps way too much!

Wanna play?

In the meantime, my son is staying with his grandparents and is enjoying the much cooler summer in Canada. He is having so much fun with his auntie and made a lot of new friends in the community. It appears my son is super social and can get along with anyone! He is also very brave. When he falls, he doesn’t cry much. He gets up and checks his body. If nothing’s wrong, he moves on. Ok, I didn’t teach him that. That’s a God-given package! 

Chasing the summer dreams

Another surprise! Well, it looks like I can’t keep surprises for too long hehe…Our baby number 2 will be here around our birthdays. The three of us will certainly have a big birthday party every year. We went to check on her today! She opened up her mouth and danced all the way through our ultrasound session. Guess, we will have an active girl in the house very soon. Alright, a new set of toys will be needed for the girl. We will buy barbies and a lot more barbies..hehe that was me when I was a baby. I loved my barbies!

Baby Cha dancing in my belly 😍

That’s all I have to say! I will update more soon! So many things are happening….