Day ??

So as you can see, I've been slacking on the Christmas posts.. But I have been attempting to "celebrate" by doing something every day. Here are a few ways:

Work Holiday Luncheon at Mr. Stox

Makayla eats a Christmas cookie while being admired by TJ employees

My favorite holiday treats!

Pear Cider

Remember this tree from my parents' house? We now have one up in our home.

Hot pot YUM!

A festive mantle

A festively dressed baby

And last but certainly not least, a visit with Santa!

Happy 15th Month Birthday Makayla!



Snoozing away


YAY 15 months! Makayla has successfully weaned!  And she is now sleeping through the night again!! 

Eric and I were just talking today about how scary it is that Makayla seems to understand everything we say now.  CRAZY!

Cognitive development:

Cause and Effect- She's been demonstrating understanding of cause and effect for some time now, but now the associations she's making have transformed into understanding that things in this world are supposed to be a certain way-- bowls are supposed to be used to drink out of so if her bowl is full of cheerios, she'll drink the cheerios. When she puts on her shoes, she gets to go outside. So when she wants to go out for a walk, she'll bring me her shoes, sit on the ground, and raise her foot up so I can put on her shoe. 

Overgeneralizing- Makayla is still figuring out the world, which includes categorizing ideas, events or objects as similar or different. This month we saw a lot of overgeneralizing, particular in her speech. Last month, Makayla saw the painting of monkeys and said "daddy", likely because of her limited language capabilities. This month, she says "baby" probably because she's convinced monkeys are babies as well. She overgeneralizes animals by calling them all doggies (unless they're duckies :)).

Language development:

Expressive language- Makayla is talking so much, I'm losing track of all the new words I hear her say!
The new words Makayla imitates: blue, yeah, yummy, piggy, bear bear, cheese, kitty
The new words Makayla says spontaneously: ducky, bye bye, uhoh, tree, wow, baba (dad in chinese)
The new phrases I think Makayla says: I love you, I want
Sign language: please
Gestures: blows kisses
Makayla also mimics a bunch of animal sounds.

Receptive language- It is difficult to know how much Makayla understands but she really seems to comprehend a lot of what we say. Eric says "bring that to Daddy" and Makayla does. I say "give mommy a kissy" or "give mommy a huggy" and she does (when she's in the mood ;)). I say "time to change your diaper" and she starts to get upset. Raissa says "time for vitamins" and she shakes her head "no". As a result, I feel like she's been showing a (tiny) bit more patience because I'm more able to reason with her. For example, she'll go to the door because she wants to go outside, but I'll tell her that we have to put on a jacket first, and she'll usually comply. We have a "Going to Bed Book" we read to her before bed. Eric asks her "what is your favorite?" and Makayla points to the pig EVERY TIME. It's an amazing feeling as a parent to know that I am free to speak and my child is receiving everything I'm saying.

Social-Emotional development:

Independence- I know her strive for independence, the main cause of tantrums, will continue for the next few years. When she wants to push something herself, she'll gently move my hands away. Now that she knows how to walk unassisted, she no longer wants to hold my hand. She wants to climb down the stairs by herself. She wants to brush her own teeth.

Testing- She has been testing a lot. We don't allow her to hit. When she gets angry, she will hit, and we'll say "No Hitting". Then she'll smirk and continue hitting lightly like a pat. Also, she knows she's not supposed to play with the baby gate-- for the most part, she stays away. Once in awhile, she'll look at us with a sneaky smile, and touch the gate, knowing that we will repremand her right away.

Peekaboo- When I say peekaboo, Makayla will now put her hands over her eyes and open them to reveal her eyes!

Asking for help- She has figured out that when she can't do something, the adult can do it for her. This is why she now allows me to put on her shoes on for her. When the phone is not on her favorite game, she hands it to me so I can find the game for her.

Attachment- She seems much more attached to me. I love that she still needs me even though I am no longer her main source of nourishment. Just this morning when I dropped her off at Raissa's house, she saw that I was about to leave so she quickly walked over to the door, waved and said "bye bye" to Raissa! Of course she cried when she realized I would be leaving without her :( 

Gross motor development:  


A fun push toy at MyGym


Walking- Last month Makayla started taking a few steps at a time. Now she can walk very well without falling. She enjoys pushing her car around especially since she can now walk behind it without falling.   
Dancing- Yes she's been dancing for awhile now but I just needed to mention that she's been rocking out to all the Christmas music. She even taps or sings to the beat.. she's got great rhythm!

Fine motor development:

Makayla has learned how to put pegs on a pegboard and to stack them. She can also put lego pieces together. It is so cool to watch.



Peg in hole activity


Adaptive development:

Makayla cleans up! She used to only enjoy taking things out of boxes. But now, she seems to enjoy putting things back in as well.

Pretty in pink

 

Auntie Emy helping Makayla learn to walk



Makayla loves balloons! and Daddy!

Mommy and Makayla

Learning to share is tough!

Add caption

Fun with Grandma Ku!

NOM NOM.. I LOVE french fries!



Makayla looks like a big girl now!



Day 5

Trader Joe's sells the best holiday treats!

We enjoyed some on day 5.

Day 4

Yesterday I sang jingle bells to Makayla while jingling some bells :)

Makayla enjoyed playing with a tin of Trader Joe's peppermint bark at Raissa's house. Yum!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

T-22 days.. And I'm only beginning to get into the Christmas spirit. Don't get me wrong- I LOVE the holidays. I may or may not have tuned into KOST every day a week before Thanksgiving in anticipation of their nonstop Christmas music. In fact, I've dreamed about all the ways I would celebrate the holidays when I had a family of my own... Well now that I do, I find myself not having much time or energy to get it together. This year we have been cleaning our house to create a safe and fun space for Makayla. Now that we are well into December, I'm forcing myself to enjoy a little bit of the holidays every day in December. Just because we will be forgoing the tree, lights, and most of the decor doesn't mean we can't enjoy the season, right?

So this is what I've done so far:
Dec 1: We had a nice post-Thanksgiving dinner with family.
Dec 2: We had our small group over at our house and enjoyed a nice afternoon of fellowship
Dec 3: I ate a Christmas cookie :)
Dec 4: (today) ???

Any suggestions??

Sorry this is such a boring post. I'll try harder next time. Here's a recent picture of Makayla to spruce it up:

Courtesy of Auntie Em

Ahhh... Much better. Now it's really beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Happy 14th month birthday, Makayla!

Wow time sure does fly! I'm sorry I haven't updated the blog lately. Eric and I have been completely sleep deprived for the past month. We think this sleep regression is a result of teething and walking. It could be anything, though. With so much development occurring at this stage, there are so many factors that can be to blame.

What an exciting month it's been! I can't believe how much she's changed!

Cognitive development:

Cause and Effect- M has been actively exhibiting her ability to understand cause and effect. She loves playing with light switches and remotes. When we let her play on the iPad, she knows which app icon to press in order to get to her favorite "duck duck moose" game.

Understanding of function- M understands that objects have specific functions. She'll pick up a phone and say "hi". She'll pick up a brush and hold it to her head. She'll try on other people's shoes :)

Imitation- M is actively imitating our actions.. It's a total riot! M has a talking/singing Elmo she likes to play with. One day our friend James came over and stuck his finger in Elmo's mouth, pretending Elmo was biting his finger, yelling "ahh ahh". Since then, M will occasionally crawl over to Elmo, stick her finger in Elmo's mouth and yell "ahh ahh".

Another time, Eric was patting her to sleep. M suddenly sits up in her crib and starts to pat her stuffed bear to sleep!

M watches me blow on her warm food before giving it to her. She now blows on her food. No joke. I caught her blowing on her Cheerios this morning.

Language development- Imitation is actually extremely important in facilitating language development for obvious reasons; babies hear what their parents say and copy them. However, babies also have to make the connection between objects being identified and the words to which they correspond. In fact, a baby is not officially talking until he/she both verbalizes and comprehends. M has always been quite the chatterbox but now she is truly talking. Of course a lot of times she's still imitating speech, but occasionally she'll spontaneously point to and correctly identify the item. So far she knows how to say daddy, mommy, hi, banana ("nana"), milk in Chinese ("nyny"), baby, doggy, car in Chinese ("tsutsu"), EIEI (from Old McDonald song), ABCDGET (attempt at singing ABCs). Raissa has also witnessed her saying other things, even full phrases. Sometimes M uses the words she knows to substitute for words she doesn't know or can't say.. For example, yesterday she pointed to a monkey and yelled "daddy"! Hehe
 

"NANA!"

Of course her receptive language is much better developed. I ask her "where is Mommy's nose?" And she points to my nose. Lately she's been sticking her finger up my nose and giggling :/ she can also identify my belly button.

Sign language has also made a comeback. We were somewhat using sign language about half a year ago, but since she was too young to sign back, we weren't too motivated to keep it going. Now we are trying to sign words we want her to express but know she won't be able to express verbally for awhile such as "please" and "thank you". Once we started signing to her we noticed she was actually picking it up pretty quickly. So far she signs "milk", "more" and "all done".

Socio-emotional development:

M is still very social. Many people are impressed by how easily she'll go to anyone. She rarely complains when being handed to a stranger unless she really wants to be held by somebody else.

M seems to understand that parents have different roles. When M is tired or needs to be comforted, she almost always prefers to be held by me. But when M wants to be protected, usually from the Roomba, she'll immediately make a dive for daddy.

Physical development:

Pigtails! Her hair is now long enough for the long awaited pigtails! One of the fun things mothers of girls look forward to.

I am convinced she has gone through a growth spurt this month. She is now comfortably wearing 18m-24m/2t. Yikes!

Motor development:

M is walking!! Within the span of a month, much of it this week in fact, we have seen her go from comfortably cruising, to standing from sitting, to walking with support under her armpits, to support holding one hand, to spontaneous walking without support and without bait (just today!). Her baby rolls are going to be melting off very soon (sniff sniff).

Munching on a free quesadilla at Costco

Enjoying her ridiculously cute Hello Kitty balloon from Aunt Em

M was a strawberry for Halloween! A little too young to be digging into the candy bowl.

Daniel wants to be M's chauffeur.

Partying at Gabe's dinosaur birthday party!

Fun at My Gym!

I love noodles!

Pumpkin Party!

Our small group, Ark, came over Sunday for breakfast (for lunch) and pumpkin carving. Eric worked his culinary magic, cooking a delish breakfast consisting of super fluffy oven baked eggs, sausage, bacon, hash browns, roasted tomatoes, and pumpkin French toast. And for dessert we had pumpkin pie and ice cream. I love a holiday themed feast!

The boys ended up carving pumpkins while the girls hung out with the babies.

M kept poking at the pumpkin and giggling.

Alvin's artwork on the left, Theo's artwork in the middle, and Eric's artwork on the right. A picture of Theo's pumpkin was posted on Facebook to announce Theo & Angela's pregnancy (notice the little heart in the girl figure). We've got very artistic men in our group!

Happy 13th month Birthday Makayla!!

Makayla is legitimately a toddler now! Some highlights this month:

Makayla is talking A LOT. She'll right at me and string together a series of indecipherable babble that sounds so convincing I'm sure it makes total sense to her! Occasionally she'll speak English or Chinese, which is super exciting. She also says "E-I-E-I" as in "Old McDonald had a farm...". She never says O though.

Makayla makes spaceship noises "PSHHH PSHHH".

Makayla is standing really well. She can go from sitting to standing without help or support which is new this month. She is also great at cruising and a fast crawler. She won't walk. Not can't, won't. Clearly she has the strength but once an attempt is made to hold her by the armpits, she starts to whine and her legs go limp.

Makayla has been super affectionate! Every once in awhile, she'll come up to me wanting a hug. Then she'll let go and crawl away.

Makayla enjoys standing on her carseat. The minute I get her in the car, she immediately turns around and stands. It is quite a challenge getting her to sit.

Makayla has become fearful of things.. Ok one thing.. The Roomba. She is so curious and when it's off, she'll even touch it. But once it's on and moving, she'll beg to be carried and hang on tight!

Makayla has become shy. Remember happy social baby M? She's still around-- when she sees a stranger, she'll point to them and smile and babble something nonsensical. And if course the strangers often look back, smile, and even talk to her.. Then she looks down, peeking her eyes up occasionally. It's the funniest thing!

Happy Pumpkin Season!

Silly Makayla

I love how Makayla has a mind of her own. If her personality now is any indication of what she'll be like in a few years, she's going to be one super silly girl!

M loves playing with glasses. When I'm wearing glasses, she'll take them off and try to put them on her own head. When I try to put sunglasses on her, she'll flash her crazy smile, take off the glasses, and hand them to me so I can put them on her again. This is M with some play glasses and her crazy smile.


Remember how M got some balloons on her birthday? The cute cupcake mylar balloon is still alive and well, and has become M's new best friend. Whenever she sees it, she gets super excited. Miss Balloon goes EVERYWHERE with her, yes even the bath. You can imagine how difficult it is for us to get out the door- either force M to let go of Miss Balloon and have her throw a fit in the car or let her keep the balloon and risk losing Miss Balloon forever.

Of course, Eric and I are not the only adoring fans. R's oldest son J wrote about M in his school journal this week. How cute is this?!?!



T Minus 88 Days

.. 'til Christmas!  My favorite holiday of the year.  Bummer, I missed t minus 100 days.

You know what else I missed? The beginning of fall.  Probably because it has been so hot here in way-too-sunny southern California; good grief, it still feels like we're in the middle of summer. To kick off the fall season, I would really like to make a very cool wreath, but I think I need to focus on getting the house clean first. Maybe if I meet my October deadline, I'll still have time to make a nice wreath for Thanksgiving.

I Heart Organizing

.. I'm just not that good at it.

First, let me start by telling you about my new obsession with blogs, particularly mommy blogs.  Eric has been super into reading blogs for forever.  Blogs about architecture, cameras, bikes, food, cooking, the environment, outdoor sports fill his google reader.  Let's just say he's a bit more "with it" than I am.

I've recently decided to explore the world of blogs, particularly motivated to find great mommy resources online. I went in search of a few cool mommy blogs.  Surprisingly, the good ones were not so easy to find with a simple google search. I searched, and searched, and suddenly hit the jackpot... Modern Parents Messy Kids .. And for those of you familiar with the blog world, once you find one great blog, the site links you to many more very cool blogs.

I will write another blog about my favorite blog sites, but Modern Parents Messy Kids is still one of my all time favorites. It linked me to another site I love- I Heart Organizing.  This site is so practical and offers both smart and creative ways of cleaning and organizing one's home/life.  It has a post on everything from organizing shoes to organizing receipts. This blog is inspiring me to strive for a clutterfree, clean, and organized home.  I'm making it a personal goal to get this done by mid-November, just in time for the holidays.  I've also decided to document my progress on this blog, so feel free to offer advice or encouragement!

One step at a time.  This week, I plan on cleaning up our messy playroom, starting a Household Binder, and organizing gift wrap. I'm so excited to blog about my progress!

Here is a picture of Makayla from this week:

P.S. Notice this is my fourth post this week. How cool is that?!

July Family Vacation

In July, we made a family vacation out of a wedding we had up in the Bay Area.  The first few days, we stayed with Eric's Godparents in Foster City.  What a jewel of a city-- so peaceful & quiet, perfect retirement community. And their community was beautiful-- they literally have a lake in their backyard!

Makayla enjoyed our tour of the city. Daddy was the chauffeur.

 

Makayla enjoyed her first pancake!

 

Makayla played with Robodog.



We also had a fantastic time at Howard and Elaine's wedding in San Jose. Howard is a very good friend of mine from grade school. He's one of the most hard working and creative people I know, so as you can imagine, the wedding was pretty fun.  

Makayla had a fantabulous time! I love this dress!

We then spent the last two days up in our favorite city, San Francisco. Eric and I used to visit at least twice a year, but we took a SF hiatus when I got pregnant. We were happy to be back in the city and most of all, to share the city with our new baby girl. We checked into the W Hotel where Makayla thoroughly enjoyed bouncing on the Heavenly Bed. 

We haven't even gotten out the door and Makayla's already loving the city.

Our view from the hotel room.

We made special transportation arrangements for Makayla.

Makayla's first MUNI trip.

We typically travel around the city trying out new SF eateries.  The 7x7 magazine offers the ultimate list of best dishes to try in the city. Since we were limited in time, we only had time to visit our favorites. Makayla was happy to pose as our travel gnome.

TARTINE

BI-RITE

MIETTE

FERRY BUILDING-- ACME BREAD & COWGIRL CREAMERY

Makayla was as cute and happy as ever.

Makayla enjoying her spoon at the mall food court.

Makayla was also extremely well behaved on the airplane trips, both on the way there and on the way back. She was super friendly with all the passengers and of course got a lot of friendly admirers, including a water polo team!

Makayla's crazy smile.

Makayla & Mommy