Joelle’s First Haircut!
When Joelle was born, she had a decent amount of hair. Her hair was quite soft and slightly curly. After every bath, her hair would stick out all over the place. It was almost impossible to comb, as if each strand of hair had its own personality. We’d try to wet it and comb her hair straight, but then she’d sleep on it and all the hair would stick out again.
Here are two pictures of her crazy hair.

Well, the crazy hair days are over. Joelle started losing her hair one patch at a time last month.
The baby books say that it is normal and the hair will grow back in a few months (or years). For Joelle, she didn’t lose all her hair. She just had a bunch of bald patches on her head. It looked so funny we decided to do what all the other Chinese parents and grandparents do…
Yup, we shaved Joelle’s head! When in China, do as the Chinese do! All the babies here (boy and girl) are either bald or have very short same-length hair. That’s because shaving a baby’s head in the early months starting at one month is standard practice because people believe that the shaving will help hair to grow out faster and thicker. Then the parents will save the first lock of hair and make it into a calligraphy brush as a memory keepsake. Some parents/grandparents even shave their baby’s hair every month!
So we asked around to see how or where to shave the baby’s hair. Everyone recommended the at-home haircutting service, 小啊华. For 28 RMB ($5 USD), someone will come to your home and shave your baby’s hair. And that’s what we did!
Here’s the video of Joelle getting her first haircut!
Joelle was expressionless (and clueless) for almost the entire shave until the very end, then she got scared of the buzzing sound from the razor and broke out in a loud cry. She was okay after the hairdresser turned off the razor. What a good sport!
Here’s a side-by-side picture of the before and after the haircut. Note that Joelle has the same exact facial expression (or lack of) in both pictures! She’s just too funny!

Now that she’s bald, we let her wear lots of pink and/or dresses every day. Even then, people would still ask if she was a girl or a boy. Sigh…
Our new nickname for her is Chunky Monk-y.
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We can’t believe Joelle will be four months old in just two days! Time flies with a baby in the house. Joelle is growing up and changing so fast. It seems like just yesterday she was a newborn and today, she’s doubled her birth weight (now 16 pounds), eating well, sleeping 15+ hours a day [...]
Joelle Thinks It’s Very Funny!!
Our baby girl is 3 months old now and most of the time, she has this 呆呆的 look on her face. For lack of an appropriate word/translation in English, it means she has this constant ‘dumb’ look and facial expression. Occasionally, she’ll smile at you if you play with her, but other than that, she [...]
Potty Training a Newborn
You might think of us as C-R-A-Z-Y, overachieving parents, but we started potty training when Joelle was just a week old. We didn’t exactly plan to potty train her this early, but it just happened. She’d always poo during or after feeding, so one day, we just held her over the sink immediately after feeding, [...]
Here are pictures from the newborn session we did when Joelle was just two weeks old.
One website says babies go through growth spurts at 2-3 weeks and 4-6 weeks while another website says 1-3 weeks and 6-8 weeks. Which is it? Or do they have one long growth spurt from 1-8 weeks?! Joelle seems to think that the latter is the case…
And this picture was taken at 4 [...]
Did we mention that we have a little baby Einstein? At day 2, she was conducting Rachmaninoff. At two weeks, she was already pooping and peeing in the toilet (and not in the diaper). Now five weeks old and already having a conversation with mommy!
Joelle talking to mommy
Joelle talking to mommy
Not yet one month old and already quite the party girl!
80s Party at Mamatown
80s Party at Mamatown
When Joelle sucks her thumb, her hand and fingers cover her face. Then every so often, she’d pull down on her eye or poke her eye. Silly girl!
Yet another episode of Joelle trying to wake up. It’s tummy time!
Joelle doing tummy time
Joelle doing tummy time
This is Joelle waking up in the morning.
Good morning, Joelle!
Good morning, Joelle!
Joelle hiccuped a lot while in the womb. Susan’s entire tummy would twitch and we could never figure out where her head was or what position she was in. Apparently, Joelle’s entire body twitches when she hiccups.
Day 5: Joelle hiccuping after a nice meal
Day 5: Joelle hiccuping after a nice meal




























