Congrats Fei, today you're featured in Finland's largest newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat! They wrote a nice story about XIHA Life with photo of you and mentioned your blog in it, too. You and I have a nice little morning tradition where I first read the newspaper and you then destroy it, but this time I guess I will try to save it for you to read later on!

Today was a big day for you - a living proof that Santa does exist! The grand old man himself was at our local shopping mall and you got a chance to tell him what you want for Christmas!

This will in fact be your second xmas but last year at 3 days old you were probably a little young to get too many lasting memories out of it...

You had such a good time at the grandpa's today playing with your cousins Teo and Milja. You guys really seem to get along well! Needless to say my dad was very glad to see you too. We enjoyed a little bit of cake too but for you it seems the main thing was meeting all the people.

You absolutely don't like driving in a car though. One hour each way was about 50 minutes too long! Poor little guy. I hope you will get used to it one of these days as driving is kind of necessary or we will end up being being stuck at home!

Today's the first time you got up to standing on your own, without anyone helping out! Couple days ago we lowered the bottom of your old crib (which you have actually never used before) to see if you'd like to spend some time there. Right from the beginning you started trying to figure out how to pull yourself to a standing position and after two days of hard work you already figured it out. This makes me think you probably would have done it a lot sooner if we'd given you the right opportunity before...

Your first time standing was quite wobbly, but in almost no time you've learned to stand quite well and even attempt to steer your way left and right holding the rail!

It was your first Halloween so we had a little pumpkin carving fun! I think the pumpkin turned out quite nice, and you were a good helper through all of it! 

Last month was quite an adventure for all of us. I spent the month in California while you and mom went to Beijing. You finally had a chance to meet your grandpa, as well as the famous Madame Ding.

Despite the long distance we kept in touch with daily Skype video chats so it wasn't totally horrible. I can only wonder what you were thinking of, seeing dad every day on the computer screen, hearing my voice, but not being able to touch. Your mom was telling me that you always got very excited when she started Skype!

When we all returned back home, it was kind of as if nothing had happened. I was afraid you might be angry at me, or even not really remember me, but you behaved just like the happy little boy you have always been. I'm sure the daily calls helped a lot, so it probably didn't feel like I was so far away. While in China you met with some very famous people, such as Wang Hairong, who was a personal English translator of chairman Mao Zedong. You also got to visit Diao Yu Tai, "King's fishing garden" which is a place in Beijing where very few people have access to.

During the month you grew a lot, and obviously you've learned a lot of new stuff too. You now sit up very well and play with multiple toys, holding different toys in each hand, moving toys from hand to hand and looking and feeling them from all angles.

I've been playing a little "choosing" game with your bath toys. You have these "little people" type of toys, which are basically tiny people with colorful clothes. I usually pick two or three, and ask you to pick a favorite. Out of yellow, green and brown guys you almost every time pick the green. Today somehow you picked the yellow, even though I tried twice... and one day you you simply grabbed all of them. Most of the time though, you carefully move your little hand through all of the toys, gently touching each of them, and then pick up the green guy with a wide smile on your face.

Just yesterday you picked another new skill - shaking your head. When you don't want something you shake your head from left to right just like saying "no". Extremely cute! You also really enjoy looking at mom and dad copy you and do the same.

Oh and what a chance one month means in terms of mobility! You're now pretty good at crawling around, and sometimes almost get up on "four wheels". Rolling is like a snap, and you move great distances amazingly quickly. In the bath tub you can get up and move around in standing position, too. I guess you'll be walking all over the place in no time!

Oh my, it's been a really long while since I last wrote to you. Daddy's been busy you know, as always. But at least we've had a chance to spend some quality time together every day, even if I did't have time to write about it.

So today the big thing happened - you said it loud and clear, and more than just once - "DADDY!"

Over the past few months you've kept growing and you're quite a tall boy already. Your favorite thing these days is use a "walker" to cruise around our home, checking out every place you can. Opening drawers, cabinets, reaching for everything you possibly can! Fortunately the walker kind of keeps you in check and prevents you from reaching everywhere... but of course it's just a matter of time when you start moving on your own.

Something you are not really doing, is eating. You love fruits, you're somewhat ok with oatmeal, but you absolutely hate "real" food. We can only hope you'll learn to like eating later on or you're gonna be a skinny boy... (or, if you keep your taste sweets perhaps I should be worried of the opposite?) Your doctor was saying she's never seen an adult who doesn't eat food so the odds are you'll get over it sooner or later.

Fei, you are a Mozart in making! I remember we let you check out the piano several months ago when you were a little baby but your little hands were not strong enough to even make a sound. All we could do was "walk" along the keys but you were not really excited about that... I guess the strong sound of piano at that time was kind of scary.

Well, things have obviously changed quite a bit! Two days ago when mom was playing you were showing a lot of interest to join in. And sure enough - you're now strong enough to actually play sounds, and that turned out to be a nearly endless source of enjoyment! 

I'm attaching a little video of you playing. As you can see from the video you're basically reading the notes, but I kind of have a feeling you're putting a little bit of your own ideas to the mix! Great job little maestro!

Boy, you're on fire these days! Just as you learned to say "mbah", you took us by a surprise when you suddenly flipped around from belly to back couple days ago. Until now you've mastered the back-to-belly manouver for quite some time but never have I even seen you attempt the other way around. However, now it seems both ways happen at ease, so you can change the position as will.

You're also pretty good at sitting. We mostly sit up in the bath these days, giving you a lot more freedom to play with the water. And we're not settling to that. The favorite excercise these days seems to be getting up to standing position when someone's holding your hands.

Oh, I almost forgot - you have such a goodtaste when it comes to cuteness. Whatever happens, even if you're uphappy and crying, just a peek of yourself in the mirror will bring a smile on your face! We've spent probably many hours in front of the mirror flirting with the "other baby", smiling and laughing!

Wow, Fei! Just as you turned six months you learned a new exciting skill - using consonants! Until now everything you've said has pretty much been "Aaa" or "Eee", but now we're suddenly getting a lot of "MmmBababaa..." as if you're trying to figure out whether to say "Mama" or "Papa" first!

Earlier on you were really interested in listening to talking and carefully watched my mouth in order to figure out how I do it. Somehow for the past one or two months you seemed to lose interest in talking and focused more on gymnastics... but now the passion for speech is back. It's amazingly cute to watch you when I talk to you. The eyes are focused on my lips and your little lips are moving slightly, trying to copy what I do. And when I stop, you start. I guess that's a conversation!

Happy birthday Fei, you're now exactly half year old little guy! As it happens, today is also "juhannus", the mid-summer day celebration in Finland.

We weren't planning on it, but we ended up doing something crazy and drove to Naantali to visit Muumimaailma with you for the first time. A little crazy, because we were just on the way to a local park when we decided to keep on driving. Granted, you're a little young for it but hopefully you got something out of the experience. Muumimaailma is a theme park built around the world of Tove Jansson's Muumi characters, which is perhaps the most famous piece of children's literature coming out of Finland... but I'm sure by the time you are old enough to know how to read this text, you will know all about Muumi's that there is to know!

You're not a car person. The drive from Helsinki to Naantali is only about two hours. Going there was fine, since you happily slept the whole time. But coming back... not easy! It seems you can handle only about one hour of driving and then not a minute more! I've heard some babies love driving, they fall a sleep in a car really easily, but it seems you are not one of those babies...

Anyway, happy birthday dude!

Fei, what a big boy you are! Couple weeks ago you figured out how to roll from back to the belly position. Now you can already sit up pretty well on your own. You've taken your first little bites of solid food this week... it's not sinking down very well yet, but you're always eager to give it a try!

On Tuesday we went to yet another nurse check up and you got your second vaccinations. It's amazing how brave little guy you are - not even a tiny bit of crying! Just a little bit of unhappy face but even that disappeared immediatelly afterwards. I also have a piece of excellent news for you - the next shot is gonna be when you turn one year, so we've got six months to go!

Today we're planning on doing some sightseeing in the beautiful Finland summer. It's truly amazing how thing change here from winter to summer. Fei, I know how much you love trees and flowers so I'm sure you enjoy walking outside now that everything's green and the flowers are blossoming everywhere!

It's not easy to get to places outside of Helsinki without a car so recently we bought a new Mini Cooper Clubman. As a little gift for you Fei, the dealership gave us a "Mini Baby Racer", which is your own little car! It's perhaps just slightly too early, but it'll be a perfect fit in no time!

We've taken a few rides already and even though it's a not easy, you seem to enjoy it quite a bit. You just need to remember to keep holding the steering wheel as it's pretty easy to got out of balance.

When you're a little older we can go outside driving in the park, that should be a lot of fun! The joy of driving is limited inside as there's not that much space... but for now it's enough for practicing!

Fei, your mom got this idea to make magazine cover for each of your monthly birthday... pretty cool, huh? We're later going to pring them as a book for you, which should be a really nice!

...and Fei's book is back! Fei, when you read this later on you will notice there's a month long gap in the updates. I wish I had been able to update this more often but it's been a busy month. Just a week ago I returned from a week-long trip to San Francisco, which is like really really far away. It was our first time to be apart for more than a short time...

Quite surprisingly you seem to have realized what's going on, as your mom told me you've behaved like a big boy! You let her cook, eat and rest without needing the full attention you often command. I was a little worried how it would go, but it turns out there was nothing to be worried about!

I missed you a lot during the week so it was a small shock to get your first reaction when I returned home. The very moment you saw me - you started crying! It's hard to say if you forgot about me and got scared, or if you just protested because I had been away for so long. But I know you usually don't cry with strangers, so... well, who can tell. Pretty quickly you started being happy with me again and now we're like best friends again.

Tomorrow we'll have another appointment with the nurse... fortunately this time there won't be any vaccinations, just a general checkup. You've grown so much, both physically and mentally. It'll be interesting to get the latest measurements. We'll also hear if we should already start on solids or if it's still ok to wait for another month or so...

This past week has been quite a milestone in your life! First you turned 100 days old, and then you had your first vaccine shot. I was afraid how you might react to being sting by the needle, but you did amazingly great. I held you in my lap when the nurse gave you the shot. You cried just a little bit, and in fact it was more like complaining than crying.

Just yesterday and today you've suddenly figured out how to move your little body! It isn't easy and we can hardly call it running but I think for you and I both this feels like a major milestone.

The way you move is interesting. You do this laying on your back. What you do is, you put both of your feet down, press hard to lift your back off the ground and then kick as hard as you can. This sends you off a few centimeters towards your head's direction. It's not getting you anywhere really, but it moves you a little and you obviously seem very motivated to keep going.

I noticed you also try to help out by pulling with your hands if you can get hold off something. I put my hand on the reach of yours, just to try it out. You grabbed my finger and I could clearly feel you pulling it towards you the same time you kicked. Smart!

This week we also finally ordered a new bed. After considering Hästen's and couple others, we ended up with Tempur. We tried it out at Stockmann's and you seemed to enjoy it. So that's decided then! Unfortunately it'll take two months to actually get the bed... but they say all good things are worth the wait!

All in all we spent way too much time at Stockmann this week as it was the "Hullut Päivät" (Crazy Days) which is their semi-annual event. Somehow the craziness got hold of your mom and so we had to check out every corner of the department stores, both in city center and Itäkeskus...

It was fun going out with you guys, so in the end the "Crazy Days" gave us a good excuse to spend some time away from home as well as work... For you it was quite an event, seeing so many people and so many new things, but you did really well.

By the way, it's funny how even at their busiest day Stockmann seems rather quiet compared to a regular day in any popular department store in China. I was worried how we will manage with the baby cart when it's crowded but it was actually not hard at all.

Happy birthday Fei! Today you reached an important milestone of 100 days. I can't believe how big boy you've already become!

Since you're a big boy today we did some special stuff. We took a ride in the subway to the city center. Up until now you've always spent the travel time in the baby cart but today you shared the seat with dad, for the first time ever!

You did really well! We spent the entire trip nicely looking at the view and staring at strangers, but I must say you were not at all happy to go back to the baby cart when we reached our station and continued on foot!

We ate some cake and coffee at Strindberg's which is one of Helsinki's most famous cafeterias right in the center of the city. You are - still - too young to eat solid foods but today you showed some obvious interest toward the food we ate.

Today was also the last day of your grandma's stay in Finland. I took her to the airport while you were taking a nap... so I guess you haven't quite realized she left. Tomorrow you must be wondering where she is... poor you. Let's hope she will be back to visit us soon!


Update: I almost forgot, your measurements on this important day! We did our best to measure your length (they say can't call it height until you can stand up on your own... funny!) and came up with 68.5 cm, which is about 27 inches. We also weighed by me standing on the scale with and without you, and it seems you're about 8.4 kg (18 and half lbs).

Fei, I'm sorry I haven't spent enough time with you in the past few days. It's the same old story, too much work and never enough time.

It seems you're used to having dad around quite much. During those days when I'm too busy to play with you, I can clearly notice how you're getting fussy.

It's very interesting, how you seem to miss me if I'm away in another room for couple hours. You're getting more and more difficult to handle, all the way to the point where nothing seems to make you happy. I sometimes hear your mom wondering if you're having some gas or if your somehow uncomfortable when you just keep complaining and refuse to even eat...

More often than not, when I step into the room, your face lights up. When I talk to you, all the worries seem to disappear and you your eyes are shining. Often I don't even need to pick you up. Mostly it's just enough that I look you in the eyes and talk to you.

Oh, I almost forgot... yesteday in the bath you figured out a new way to splash the water. Somehow you found out that if you put some pressure on your legs you're able to arch your back a little to lift your entire lower body to the surface, and then let go and splash the water all over the place! I must say you were really excited when you realized it. With smile on the face and eyes shining bright you kept looking at mom and dad and doing it over and over again.