Bridal Shower for Dorothy

Growth spurt

Haley is going through growth spurt this few days. Based on the research, babies in this stage may lose interest in nursing and sleeping. Her naptime and nighttime schedules are all messed up. She refuses to take naps, stays up after midnight and she wakes up in the middle of night as well. When I nurse her, she latches on for only a short period of time. To avoid decrease in milk supply, I have to pump every time after she finishes and try to nurse her more often. Ever since she mastered her skills in sitting up and pulling herself up to stand, she has been so crazy about standing and bouncing. She is not playing with any of her toys, but to search for things to help her climb up to the standing position. As soon as she stands up, she first looks for your praises, then she starts to bounce and sit back on her butt. She can continue this same dwell for many times. It is very hot outside lately, but I still take her out for a walk so she can fall asleep on the stroller. Each growth spurt will last a few days to a week, hopefully soon she will get back to her normal schedule.

Woman kidnapped as child resurfaces 18 years later

By JULIET WILLIAMS and SAMANTHA YOUNG, Associated Press Writer Juliet Williams And Samantha Young, Associated Press Writer

PLACERVILLE, Calif. – Joyous, miraculous news that a little girl kidnapped nearly two decades ago was found alive gave way Thursday to the horrifying details of how police say she has lived all those years: kept in captivity by a convicted rapist in his backyard and forced to bear two of his children.

Jaycee Lee Dugard, who was 11 in 1991 when she was snatched from her school bus stop, was locked away from the outside world behind a series of fences, sheds and tents in the back of a suburban home.

Her abductor, investigators said, raped her and fathered two children with her, the first when Jaycee was about 14. Those children, both girls now 11 and 15, also were kept hidden away in the backyard compound.

"None of the children have ever been to school, they've never been to a doctor," El Dorado County Undersheriff Fred Kollar said. "They were kept in complete isolation in this compound."

Dugard, now 29, appeared at a parole office Wednesday with her children and the couple accused of kidnapping her. She was reunited Thursday with her mother, but the family was also learning that their smiling, blue-eyed, blonde ponytailed little girl had spent most of her life in captivity.

"She was in good health, but living in a backyard for the past 18 years does take its toll," Kollar said.

The backyard compound had electricity from extension cords and a rudimentary outhouse and shower, "as if you were camping," Kollar said.

Convicted sex offender Phillip Garrido, 58, was being held for investigation of various kidnapping and sex charges. His wife, Nancy Garrido, 54, was also arrested, and authorities said she was with Garrido during the kidnapping in South Lake Tahoe.

Garrido was on lifetime parole and his arrest raises questions about how closely parolees are monitored. But Kollar said a parole officer who had visited Garrido's house previously had not noticed anything amiss — the compound was well concealed by shrubs, garbage cans and a tarp.

"You can't see over the fence with the shrubbery and the trees. You can't see the structures," Kollar said.

Neighbor Helen Boyer, 78, described the Garridos as nice and friendly and said they cared for Phillip Garrido's elderly mother.

"If I needed something, they would be the first I would call on," Boyer said.

The case broke after Garrido was spotted Tuesday with two children as he tried to enter the University of California, Berkeley, campus to hand out religious literature. The officers said he was acting suspiciously toward the children. They questioned him and did a background check, determining he was a parolee, and informed his parole officer.

Garrido was ordered to appear for a parole meeting and arrived Wednesday with Dugard, who identified herself as "Allissa," his wife and two children. During questioning, corrections officials said he admitted kidnapping Dugard. Investigators said he did not yet have an attorney.

Authorities said they do not know if Garrido also abused his daughters, but they are investigating.

Dugard's stepfather, who witnessed her abduction and was a longtime suspect in the case, said he was overwhelmed by the news after doing everything he could to help find her.

"It broke my marriage up. I've gone through hell, I mean I'm a suspect up until yesterday," a tearful Carl Probyn, 60, told The Associated Press at his home in Orange, Calif.

Garrido's compound was located in Antioch, a city of 100,000 about 170 miles from her family's home in South Lake Tahoe. The house was cordoned off with police tape as it was searched by FBI agents and the El Dorado County Sheriff's Department.

People who knew Garrido said he became increasingly fanatic about his religious beliefs in recent years, sometimes breaking out into song and claiming that God spoke to him through a box.

"In the last couple years he started getting into this strange religious stuff. We kind of felt sorry for him," said Tim Allen, president of East County Glass and Window Inc. in Pittsburgh, who bought business cards and letterhead from Garrido's printing business for the last decade. Three times in recent years, Garrido arrived at Allen's showroom with two "cute little blond girls" in tow, he said.

In April 2008, Garrido registered a corporation called Gods Desire at his home address, according the California Secretary of State. During recent visits to the showroom, Garrido would talk about quitting the printing business to preach full time and gave the impression he was setting up a church, Allen said.

"He rambled. It made no sense," he said.

Garrido would talk about holding events at UC Berkeley and mentioned the names of important people as if he knew them. Allen said he had no inkling of Garrido's criminal record.

"We never thought anything bad about the guy," Allen said. "He was just kind of nutty."

Garrido gave a rambling, sometimes incoherent phone interview to KCRA-TV from the El Dorado County jail Thursday in which he said he had not admitted to a kidnapping and that he had turned his life around since the birth of his first daughter 15 years ago.

"I tell you here's the story of what took place at this house and you're going to be absolutely impressed. It's a disgusting thing that took place from the end to the beginning. But I turned my life completely around," he said.

In addition to kidnapping allegations, court records showed both Garridos were being held for investigation of rape by force, lewd and lascivious acts with a minor and kidnapping someone under 14 with intent to rape. Phillip Garrido also faces allegations of sexual penetration.

The Associated Press as a matter of policy avoids identifying victims of alleged sexual abuse by name in its news reports. However, Dugard's disappearance had been known and reported for nearly two decades, making impossible any effort to shield her identity now.

Garrido has a long rap sheet dating back to the 1970s.

He was convicted of kidnapping a 25-year-old woman whom he snatched from a South Lake Tahoe parking lot, handcuffed, tied down and held in a mini-warehouse in Reno, according to a November 1976 story in the Reno Gazette-Journal.

He also has a conviction for rape by force or fear stemming from the same incident, and was paroled from a Nevada state prison in 1988, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

In 1991, police believe he was trolling for victims in South Lake Tahoe in a Ford Granada and snatched Dugard from a bus stop outside her home. The case attracted national attention and was featured on TV's "America's Most Wanted," which broadcast a composite drawing of a suspect seen in the car.

Her stepfather said he saw someone reach out and grab her before the car sped away.

"As soon as I saw the door fly open, the driver's door, I jumped on my mountain bike and I tried to get to the top of the hill but I had no energy," Probyn recalled. "I rode back down and yelled at my neighbor, 911!"

Probyn said his wife, from whom he is separated, was devastated by the kidnapping. He said for 10 years after the crime, she would take a week off work at Christmas and on the anniversary of the abduction and spend the time crying at home.

Probyn eventually lost hope that he would ever see his stepdaughter alive. In the interview he gave before details about her captivity emerged, he said he was struggling to understand why Dugard didn't come forward earlier.

"I don't know if she was brainwashed, I don't know if she was walking around on the street, I don't know if she was locked up under key for 18 years, I have no idea."

Dugard retains custody of her children and was staying at a Bay area motel, authorities said.

At the Lake Tahoe Unified School District, employees huddled around television sets and computers to watch the news conference. Their tears of joy that Jaycee was alive became tears of horror and anger when details of her abduction and long captivity were recounted by police.

"Oh my God," murmured Superintendent James Tarwater.

Resident Angie Keil said the Lake Tahoe community rallied around the family, holding candlelight vigils, and in the early days organizing searches.

"Jaycee has always been in our minds, all these years," she said, her eyes moist with tears.

Associated Press Writers Paul Elias and Terry Collins in San Francisco, Gillian Flaccus in Orange, Calif., Brooke Donald in Antioch, Calif., and Sandi Chereb in South Lake Tahoe, Calif. contributed to this report.

聽了這宗新聞真是令人髮指，這世界真是太恐怖了！案發地點只是遠離我家大約四十分鐘車程。現在我為人母親，真是很擔心，再想想也令我毛骨耸然！

Self-Feeding

小小雲自己試食，天一半地一半，食到成身污糟哂！

被需要的感覺

小小雲已經睡過夜一段日子了！昨晚她半夜哭醒，我一等再等，看看她會否自己再睡，可是她越哭越大聲，原來她是不舒服，而且還嘔吐在床和她的衣服上。媽媽看見很後悔當時沒有立即去安慰她。小小雲看見爸爸媽媽，她舉起雙手，眼裡充滿眼淚，好像等了很久媽媽的擁抱和愛護。我抱起她，她的頭仔依偎著我的身體，她叫嚷著"媽也！" 我當時的心真的被融掉了！我一邊幫她換上清潔的衣服，一邊安慰著她，她是多麼的嗲嗲氣。那種被需要的感覺真的很實在！

九個月的健檢

小小雲重18lb9oz，高29inches。估不到她的高度在同年紀的全國統計內是90%，而體重就是50%。今次不需要打預防針，但媽媽已經詢問了額外的旅遊預防針，到她一歲回港前注射。另外媽媽當然不放過這機會，一於打爛沙盤問到篤，要將預先寫下關於小小雲的問題全部解答。醫生說小小雲是個活躍的小孩，一切發展正常，但皮膚的濕疹依然嚴重，需要繼續用藥和最重要保持滋潤。

四腳趴趴

Playground

農夫市場

自家製嬰兒食品

小小雲差不多九個月大了！吃了媽媽做的餐單也大約四個多月了！她的餐單包括：蘋果，香蕉，梨，瓜，蘿蔔，豆，豆腐，桃，雞肉... 她在食方面沒有令媽媽太擔心。雖然有時會攪到媽媽同自己一身都係，不過食嘅份量同速度都OK。媽媽準備慢慢讓她自己試餵自己，到時一定重混亂啦！

1st set of Polaroid

懂魔法的爸爸

不知是爸爸的樣子和歌聲比較乏味，還是爸爸在時令小小雲特別有安全感，每次爸爸哄小小雲小睡都不需多過十五分鐘，而唱同一樣的歌曲，坐在同一樣的搖搖，媽媽就可以哄成個小時也不成功。爸爸威盡啦！

小小雲終於"媽媽"聲

Happy Birthday to SaSa!

Happy Birthday to SaSa!

自己坐起身

嘩！小小雲今日又識多一樣野啦！

結婚五周年之Napa一天遊

小小雲，你望左去邊呀？
小小雲都想摘提子
草地上的她點解扁起咀仔?
怪獸父女，想嚇媽媽
小小雲採花？
我地嘅高級晚餐，D龍蝦多到驚食唔哂，個扒大到要打包啦！
回程前嘅全家幅

結婚五周年之悠閒的下午

小小雲送了我一份令媽媽興奮開心的禮物，這就是她發出"媽媽"的發音。臨睡前，她在床仔叫了一聲"媽媽媽媽"！當時我立刻大叫，"爸爸，她叫媽媽媽媽呀！" 我知道我沒有聽錯，那不是我想像出來的，是真的！之後我不斷鼓勵她再叫多一次，可是沒有成功。不過媽媽永遠都不會忘記她當時的聲調和樣子，我到現在還不斷回味著那窩心的感覺。

自己企起身-Part 2

自己企起身-Part 1

An afternoon with Sky

Sky 和小小雲的合照

同小小雲影番幅先落水

池邊熱身

嘻嘻哈哈!

沖完涼被電嚫嘅髮型

爸爸，你扶住我！

醜樣

Euna's Daughter is a Survivor

http://www.momlogic.com/2009/08/a_mother_and_daugher_reunion_s.php

Euna's Daughter is a Survivor
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
filed under: news
As a mother and her family are reunited, the healing begins.
Getty Images
Dr. Michelle Golland: Watching the amazing story unfold as the two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, returned home this morning was an emotional moment for anyone, but if you are a mom, I am sure you were grabbing for a box of Kleenex. Watching Euna Lee's daughter, 4-year-old Hannah, reunite with her mother was a moment that this family and many of us will never forget.
When a family is experiencing ongoing trauma like the Ling and Lee families have, what is important is proactive behavior to give a sense of control and hope during the darkest of times. It was apparent that since March, both of these families were doing anything and everything to secure the release of these women.
Watching Hannah stare into her mother's eyes and then quickly grab her mom in that monkey-hug hold we all know very well, I could almost feel her little legs squeezing her mom's waist. Hannah caressed her mom's ponytail in such a natural way, like she must have done hundreds of times before. The family's love and resilience was evident in each and every one of them, but Hannah's was striking to me.
The most telling moment for me was when we watched them all walk away from the podium to start their much-needed private reunion. We saw Hannah skipping away, holding her mom's hand, and swinging her hair with utter joy.
Today, may we all be thankful for our own families and squeeze our kids a little harder. Also, let's embrace joy and love above all else, and skip through life like Hannah. Don't forget to swing your hair, too!

Self Soothing

Why is it so difficult to teach babies to self soothe to sleep? I have followed the instructions to try to set bedtime schedule and routines. However, most people said we should just let her cry it out; all it takes is 3 days or a week to the most for her to learn the skill. The crying time can be from 15 minutes up to 2 hours. I have to admit that I am so weak in this matter. I’m sure Haley is up for the challenge, yet waiting for mom to give her the opportunity to learn. How can I let her cry out from her lung for so long? I can hear her say, "Mommy, Mommy, don't leave me" from her crying. Friends told me I should go do other things like get online, cleaning, or even vacuuming so I don't have to hear her brutal cries. It's so hard! My tears are falling just by thinking about her laying on the crib, rolling back & forth and yelling for some attention. She holds onto the wood panels of the crib with her hands and looks through them into my eyes, just like the prisoners, my heart is broken! I give in again and I have to pick her up and soothe her to sleep by breastfeeding her. Baby, baby, please go easy on yourself and mommy! You have fallen to sleep by yourself a few times with no drama. What if I have to begin weaning you from breastfeeding after you are 1-year old? What should I do then? I guess whatever it takes for you to get enough sleep and be healthy; eventually you will learn, right?

我要企！

小小雲想自己企，媽媽知道跌倒再跌倒是小小雲的成長過程，但媽媽看見也有心跳停頓的感覺！

頑皮相

5678

嘩！媽媽今天發現小小雲已經有八隻牙仔啦！包括上下兩邊的側門牙。經過媽媽一忍再忍痛，加上每次不段告訴她不要咬媽媽，告訴她媽媽會痛痛，吃奶奶時咬媽媽的情況已經很小發生。小小雲都算聽教聽話啦！至於學用sippy cup也算成功，只要媽媽幫一點點，她已經可以自己拿著杯杯喝了。

Potluck (百家菜) @ 姑姐姑丈's

小小雲與媽媽在享受着姑姐特別為我們清潔的鞦韆。
小朋友們一起玩。
草地上的小小雲和Anson。
媽媽哣小小雲笑，連在麻將房內的姑姐和爸爸也聽見她的笑聲。