happy horse

Man, I was hoping this post will have some fun pics. but seeing I'm at work right now, it's not gonna happen. Anyway...

Noelle is getting cuter and cuter each day!! And she's definitely more in the learning mode. She'll listen to what you are saying and copy or repeat the words. She still watches and loves her Baby Can Read dvds. And is now following what they are saying in the video and learning words. Noelle's current fav words are: happy, horse and baby. She'll even say "happy" on her own, just randomly with a big smile. We think she know what happy means.

She also learns to kiss with her little mouth now. Before when we tell her "kiss kiss", she'll put her forehead on you and said "mmmmmuah". It's so fun to get kisses from her. This one time I switched side with Dave, so I was closer to Noelle's bed. She woke up in the morning, saw it was her mama on the closer side to her. She smiled and gave me a kiss. It was sooooo sweet!

Miss Noelle also loves to clean and likes keeping things tidy. She'll take things to the trash can on her own or turn off the radio/light when we are leaving. What a good citizen, lol. She always wants a napkin while eating, so she can wipe the table, her hands or her mouth. However, she prefers using her little fingers over utensils for eating and absolutely refuses using bibs. So mealtime is still kinda messy.

She tells us when she poo, but sometimes chooses not to if she's watching her dvd or playing. At work she'll walk over to her diaper bag and "talks" to me and pointing to her diaper. That's how I know she poo. And she gets really excited to be changed. I guess it's kinda rewarding for her that her mama understands her.

Miss Noelle is going to turn 2 very soon, I'm hoping she'll not become one of those terrible 2s, but a terrific two.

Dinner schedule

When we first got married a little over 4 years ago, I was very excited to cook meals everyday. Before we got married, it was the husband (the boyfriend/fiance back then) who did the cooking. I'd come over after work and either him or his dad will make the dinner for us. So when we finally got married and had gotten all those wonderful kitchen-related wedding gifts. I started trying out different recipes, different cuisine. Heck, I had even gotten into baking and making breads!! But it all changed after Miss Noelle was born. At first it's cuz I was so tired from the lack of sleep. So I tried to whip up something simple and quick. But when she started eating solid food, I try to cook something she can also have. That way, I don't need to prepare 2 different dinner for the 3 of us. That means no spicy food or things that Miss Noelle can't have yet (i.e. shrimp, peanut butter, things that are tougher, etc.) I had also stopped making meals that require reading recipes. First of all, some recipes require different ingredients and I try to purchase similar things when we do our weekly grocery shopping. It's just easier to manage. Secondly, recipes may also means I need to spend a little more time in the kitchen. And that's just not happening nowadays. I try to prep the food during our lunch time and cook the dinner when Miss Noelle is watching her Sesame Street (which gives me less than one hour of time to cook, and that is if she absolutely doesn't need my attention). So this year, I decided to have a set dinner schedule for Monday and Wednesday. For us, Monday is spaghetti night and Wednesday is pizza night. And I've just added broccoli chicken over rice for Friday night about 2 weeks ago. It has been a win-win meal in our household. So 3 days out of the 5 (weekends are my off days), we have something planned already. It's sad that I can't be more spontaneous, however this is the plan I'm willing to stick to for a little while.

TV shows

What are the tv shows everyone's watching nowadays? I don't watch that much tv thanks to Miss Noelle, we now only watch tv when she goes to bed (8:30). But luckily most of our shows are on later at night anyway. This is the list of what I'm watching/obsessed with:

Grey's Anatomy - have been watching it since season 2 (already caught up with season 1)
Glee - this is new obsession, the music is GREAT and the characters are very interesting
Top Chef - this is probably the best season so far, I love Jennifer!! she for some reasons reminds me of Meredith from Grey's, lol. the 2 brothers are really talented too. but Robin needs to go!
Desperate Housewives - I didn't watch it consistently until 2 seasons ago? It's quite addicting

I wanted to watch Fringe again, but it's the same time as Glee. That's about it, not that many shows huh? We do flip the channels when our shows aren't on.

Talking girl, part 2

So Miss Noelle is definitely talking more and more!! Today, she says "ugg", which is really "bug". And she points it out and says "ugg" when she sees a fly. So I can kill it, haha. She also says "nooo", which is nose. We took a video of her at lunch time today, it was very entertaining. Miss Noelle decided to play peekaboo...

Noelle's first youtube

I'm going to see how youtube works with upkeeping videos, we shall see.

Talking girl

Noelle is now 20 months old and she is starting to talk more and more. She has mastered saying "mama" (and it's for me! well, most of the time) and "no" (ever so very clearly). One new thing she enjoys doing is making us go thru the ipod songs, she'll shake head and say "no" if it's not the song she wants. She basically goes thru almost her entire song list, sheesh. Noelle sometimes actually says "what's dat?" or "ooooh, what's dis?" but not very clearly, or at least her words aren't clearly separated yet. More like "whatsdat?" and "oooooo, whatsdis?" But very close! Oh and she loves balls. This little girlie will spot a ball miles away and she'll start saying "a ball" or "ball" while walking toward the ball to get it. Sometimes I think she says "bowl bowl" for her snack bowl, and "ba-ba" for her bottle. She doesn't say it all the time, so it's not official yet.

I love having a talking kid!

She also knows some of her body parts, like eyes/ears/mouth/nose/head/arms/belly button. I may have to start teaching her those in Chinese, just so she can be a little bit bilingual. My parents are on my case to teach Noelle Chinese. But I don't like to use it when her daddy is around, so he doesn't feel left out. And they use only English at the daycare. So it's not much opportunity for me to use solely Chinese with her. But I guess I should try harder.

18-month check up

This is just a quick update. Miss Noelle had her 18-month check up last week (I know, almost a whole month later). And she's now almost 22lbs (our skinny chick) and is 31 inches tall. Her weight and height percentile is around 10-20th, not bad but wish she could be a little bigger. However, her head, OMG, is off the chart!! On the doc's monitor, her head measurement is over the percentile. We've got a big head baby :-P Now we just need to tell the rest of her body to catch up, lol. She also had two shots, but she did good. Well, the mommy was too chicken to be there, so the daddy took Miss Noelle for her appointment.

Picky eater

I'm getting lazy with updating my blog!! Well, I was really hoping I can have some pics on this post, but I guess not. So we have a little picky eater!! It's getting harder to figure out what we shall give Miss Noelle. Well, she's not THAT picky, but to the point we hope she could be a little better with her choices. She really likes pasta and rice, everything else is all up to her mood. She also is a miss independent. Miss Noelle wants to feed herself. It's good that she wants to work on using the utensils to eat, but it also gets pretty messy. She'll eat from my forks tho, so that works. I've been trying to give her more veggie and fruits, but she usually will just spit it out or eat very very little of those. And apparently she doesn't like L&L's BBQ chicken either :-P But we had jamba last week and she LOVED it. She was a smoothie nazi and took my jamba and won't give back. She likes Orange Dream Machine (my fav as well). We are thinking of making our own smoothie and maybe toss in some fruits and veggie and see if she'll drink them. We don't have a juicer tho, I want to make veggie juice for her. I don't think blender works as well, cuz you get the pulps and I bet Miss Noelle will shake her head at the pulps :-P

And yes, she loves to shake her head. She nods her head once in a blue moon, but shaking her head is her fav. Sometimes she'll shake her head too fast and regrets it right away, lol. Today the daycare called me up and they told me Miss Noelle had bit her tongue while playing. She bleed quite a bit but was all better. She apparently had lunch and was napping, so I guess it didn't bother her too much. My little brave girl!! She is now more active and loves to run around, that means chances of her getting hurt increase tremendously. We just gotta keep an eye on her. She also loves to "talk", still no actual words yet. But boy does she love to yap! There's this one time, we were just sitting by her big girl bed and talk. Miss Noelle held the whole conversation, she "talks" and "talks" and "talks" to the daddy (without much stopping in between). It was sooo cute! But if she doesn't start saying actual words soon, I think I may have to worry. Her 18-month check up is next week, so we'll see what the doc says.

We are also on the process of helping her to get rid of bottle. We now offer her milk in a Elmo sippy cup and give it to her at every meal. She still doesn't drink much milk from it, but hopefully this will help her to get used to the cup. We still can't get rid of the bottle completely, cuz otherwise she won't get much milk. She doesn't need as much milk now, but does need enough in her system each day. Miss Noelle decided not to like brushing her teeth as much now either. She used to love brushing her teeth with the little kiddie toothbrush. Now she'll shake her head and won't open her mouth. I had to use this little rubber thingy with the brush on the top and it fits on my index finger. I basically just stick my finger in her mouth and brush that way. She actually lets me do that, but she'll bite me every now and then. And have I told you she's a hard biter? It HURTS! Ah the joy of being a mama.

Big girl bed and apple juice

OK, now that it's been almost 2 weeks since Miss Noelle switched to her "big girl bed". We can say now that she's definitely enjoying it. Every night after her last bottle, she'll walk to the bathroom sink to have her teeth brushed (while the mommy holding her of course). And then she'll carry her George with her and walks over to her bed. She doesn't lay down on her own, but when we put her down, she'll just hold her George and drifts to sleepyland. She still wakes up a couple of times some nights, but that's about it. In the morning, I don't really know when she usually wakes up. But she's always up before my alarm goes off. Cuz I'll hear noises from her side (little feet walking on the mattress). Sometimes she'll stick her binky in the daddy's mouth (he's on her side), hahaha. Miss Noelle actually sleeps in her bed sometimes for naps too. She actually wants to take her naps in her bed, cuz she'll carry her George and reaches for the bedroom door in the afternoon. But most of the time I have to head back to work, so we can't let her nap in her bed. We do that on the weekends tho, if we are home during her naptime.

Gah, I really need to start loading pics here too. I just uploaded pics from past 3 months to facebook two days ago. :-P

OK, this is a little overshare. But Miss Noelle has not been regular for the past few days. She's always very regular, ever since she was born. Wait, even right before she was born :-P This little girl pooed right before I delivered her, so we didn't get to cut her cord. Because they don't want her to cry to suck in anything (ew), and that the moment she was born, the med crew took her away to clean her. Anyway, so she's always been regular. She somedays even poos a couple of times. So the past few days she has not had any #2. We just read that having too much ice cream may cause constipation. Ooops! We've been giving her ice cream quite a lot lately. And she sure enjoys that :-P She loves holding the ice cream cone too, and it's so messy. So I was getting worried that she may be constipated and I don't really know what I should do. Then I remembered someone said that they gave their kiddies apple juice whenever they have poo poo problem. So I gave it a shot this afternoon. Miss Noelle drank a tiny bit of apple juice. Right after she watched her video, homegirl had a big, glorious #2!!!! I was so happy to see 'em, lol. Things you never thought you'd be glad to see before you become a parent.

Big girl bed!!!

OK, it's not really a big girl bed. But we took her crib mattress out and put it on the floor last night, and Miss Noelle slept in it the whole night! She did wake up a couple of times crying, but that's pretty normal for her. The daddy fetched her binky and she's back to the dreamland. She went to sleep around 9:20 and woke up around 7:10, not bad!!! Miss Noelle really likes her "big girl bed" tho, she keeps going up and down on it, laying on it and all. I hope this is a good start.

She's also really enjoying the VBS music, lol. It was last week and she's still listening to the music and dances to it. It's not cool when the mommy or the daddy turns it off, she gets mad.

OMG Blood!!!

Miss Noelle was having a really hard time sleeping last night. She felt asleep around 9 which was normal. But she woke up a few times in the middle of night and was crying and crying. Finally she went back to sleep. Around 5:10-20, I heard the daddy yelled, "Kat, we need to GO!" Well, at least that's what I thought he said, you see I was totally asleep when he said that. And then he said, "she's bleeding!" That definitely woke me up, so I quickly turned on the light. And sure enough, Miss Noelle's got blood in her nose and all over her mouth, it was such a frightening sight to see. We couldn't figure out if she's having nose bleed or what (she was coughing on and off all night). So we cleaned her up and turned out it was her nose. Since we are the first time parents and Miss Noelle has never had a nose bleed before, we called the peds advise line. I continued to clean Noelle (she started to bleed again soon after we cleaned her the first time) while the daddy talked to the nurse. Miss Noelle was back to normal right away tho, she started to play with her toys and was "talking" again. According to the daddy, the nurse wasn't very helpful, she basically read the "what to do when there's nose bleed" pamphlet to him (which he knows from work). However, since Miss Noelle was all better, we just emailed her doctor and see if she has anything else to say.

This ordeal ended around 6am and I was ready to go to bed. The daddy told me to sleep and he'll watch Miss Noelle. I didn't argue with that :-P But they both came in soon after I laid down. Miss Noelle actually slept too (good girl!), I guess she realized it's not her awake time yet.

I'm so thankful that she was not in any more discomfort and that the bleeding has stopped quickly. And for the daddy to notice it, otherwise we'll be washing our bed sheets (Miss Noelle still co-sleeps with us). But what a way to wake up! Don't ever do this again, baby girl!

Temper Tantrums

Our precious angel is not even 2 yet (almost 17 months), but I think she may be heading toward the much feared "terrible 2" already. Miss Noelle now throws temper tantrums when things aren't going her way. She'll either lay down (face on the ground), or she'll throw herself down and won't let you pick her up. Ahhhhh, whyyyyy?

They said the best way is to ignore them when they are having their episode. But it's not that easy to do when you are in public. And normally that's when they'll have the tantrum thingy going on (in public). So what we've been doing is just pick her up and tell her it's not OK. Miss Noelle knows "no", she'll shake her head when we say "no". Her fav thing to do is to shake her head when she doesn't want to eat certain thing or that she's done eating. It's pretty good actually, so we don't have to guess. She kinda signs, but definitely has the "all done" and "more" mixed up, lol. Her "more" means "all done" in her book, luckily mommy and daddy understand her perfectly.

I also gave Miss Noelle her very first hair cut last Thursday. Her bangs are getting really ridiculously long, it's past her eyes and it makes it really hard to see. So when she was sleeping on Thursday night, I went in and chopped her bangs. I just grabbed and cut, and it actually turned out pretty even :-P She looks really cute with the new bangs.

I think I need to start loading pics here, I bet you are tired of all text entries. haha.

Whole day!!

So most of you know by now that Miss Noelle goes to daycare twice a week. She let the caregiver fed her last week, so we thought it's time to let her go to daycare whole day instead of just the morning. Of course the mommy was very nervous about it. Not seeing her kiddie for a whole day? And not knowing whether she'll take her naps/eat the food. It's just a brand new experience for the both of us. The cell phone was right by the finger tip the whole day and of course the mommy never gotten any calls from the daycare. She was quite nervous when it's time to pick Miss Noelle up. This little girl fake cried when she saw the mommy walking in. And according to the caregiver, Miss Noelle didn't cry at all, not even when the daddy left (which she usually cries a little). She only really cried when it was her time to nap. But c'mon now, napping at a new environment without any fuss? You are asking too much, lol. She still slept for an hour, which isn't bad at all. The parental was very impressed with Miss Noelle's first whole day at the daycare. We can say that from now on, it's pretty much always going to be whole day at the daycare!!

Miss Noelle also learned her toes/nose/ears. If you ask her, she'll point to those parts most of the time. Before she only knows the belly button, and boy does she love the belly buttons. She'll yank your shirt up to find your belly button, so beware!

Eating like a big girl!

Now that we are finally over the teething from hell (thank God!), Miss Noelle is acting more and more like a big girl. Yesterday at lunch, Miss Noelle grabbed the spoon off her daddy's hands and fed herself. We had to watch and help her out, since she's still not very good with the spoon. But she loves doing that. Yesterday at dinner, she didn't want to eat. So I handed her the spoon and she gave me this big smile. And she ate the entire dinner with the spoon all on her own (of course we helped her out here and there). What a big girl!! This morning at breakfast, she again didn't want to touch her scrambled eggs. So I gave her the baby forks, and she once again ate the whole thing. I hope she'll never grow tired of feeding herself, lol.

Miss Noelle also loves to see me sign to her, but she isn't signing back much. She'll copy some signs tho. Let's see if she'll sign them back to me one of these days. She starts to "talk" more as well. Or making noises for that matter, haha. Even tho she's pretty petite for her age, this girl is loud! Miss Noelle however, is throwing more tantrums. If you take something that she's holding, boy does she get MAD. It really doesn't work well especially at the stores. Man, I really don't want to have to deal with temper tantrums. EEEk.

Teething from hell

This long weekend has been really really interesting.

Friday night at the dinner table, Miss Noelle was really fussy and didn't want to eat. I thought she was just tired, since she didn't have her regular nap in the afternoon. So the daddy put her down and she felt asleep. I went in to check on her in a few minutes and thought she felt kinda warm. Took her temp and she was 102. So I let her slept until she woke up on her own. She was just really out of it for the rest of the night. I'll hold her in my arms and she'd fall sleep, kinda in and out. Finally I put her down at 8:30 and she almost passed out immediately.

Saturday we woke up and Miss Noelle seemed to be much better, back to her silly self. So we went to IKEA cuz I need to get some cabinet and organizing stuff. We spent a few hours there and towards the end, Miss Noelle was getting fussy. We took her temperature again when we got home, she was getting warm again. And then for the rest of the night she was just crying none-stop. It's not the normal fussy cries either, it's the loud why-are-you-leaving-me kinda panic cries. She was chewing on her binky so we thought maybe she was teething. But she never act like this when she teethes. And she won't touch her milk either, luckily she'll drink some water from her sippy cup. But it wasn't much either. And eating was basically out of the question. That night, she'd sleep for 30 minutes or 1 hour and woke up crying, freaking out. We barely had any sleep, it was very exhausting and frustrating. The daddy decided to take her to see a dr. to figure out what's wrong. And turned out, she was having some molars coming in and it's probably the worst kind of teething for them kiddies. Molars are the largest teeth in your mouth and picture having those cutting thru your flesh. Yea, not very fun.

The doctor suggested us to use children motrin, it's much stronger than infant tylenol. We also found this teething tablets that you can get at most drugstores. The combination of these drugs really eased Miss Noelle's discomfort. She fell asleep last night and was able to sleep thru the night. We were sooooo thankful! She is still going thru the teething part, but she's really getting back to her normal self. She is drinking and eating more again, hopefully she'll get those pounds back. Miss Noelle kinda lost some weights since she wasn't eating or drinking.

We were reading things about teething online when we were trying to find home remedies. And I read it somewhere that it's normally around 15 months that you get your first sets of molars. Miss Noelle is 15.5 months, so I guess it's about time. Wish I had known that earlier tho, lol. It's really scary to see your kid suffering and not knowing exactly what's going on. Being a parent is no easy task and I think it's supposed to get harder. Oy!

Where is George?

To help Miss Noelle adjust to the daycare better, we thought having her bring something familiar from home will help some. She has a curious George and he has became her companion to daycare. She's so close to him that she knows him by name!! If we ask Miss Noelle, "Where is George?" She'll start looking the much loved monkey. And when she finds him, she'll give him a big hug or kiss.

The first toy she knows by name!

Mama bear moment

Last Saturday I had a mama bear moment.

So we were driving to our fav store, Target :-P On the merge to 87, the car in front of us was slowing down and moved to the left lane. That kinda made the car behind it slows down. I was thinking, what was that car doing? Why is it slowing down while merging? And just then it swiveled to our lane and took the exit. It came so sudden that Dave had to slam on his brake, hard, to prevent hitting the dumb car. Of course we honked at that car (unforunately a female driver). But I was absolutely fuming!! She could've hurt us, and Miss Noelle was in the car with us! What if Miss Noelle got hurt?? So I rolled down and window and yelled, "ARE YOU CRAZY?!?!?!" I think I was this close of having Dave to chase after her and give her a piece of my mind. What the heck. When I get road rage, I usually keep it in (inside the car, lol). But this time I really wanted that woman to know how furious I was.

I think it's definitely a mama bear moment for me, need to protect my baby.

Daycare soon

So we went to check out the daycare yesterday. It's run by an older lady and her husband. She's been doing this for over 30 years now. I think basically she started out as stay at home mom and just enjoying doing it so much that she made a business out of it. I think that's pretty cool! Cuz she now gets to babysit her own grandchilds when needed and still makes some money on the side. Her place is pretty nice. They converted the garage into a baby play room filled with toys. And they've got a big backyard that also have lots of kiddie toys. I think Miss Noelle will enjoy it there. Now we just need to figure out how to ease her into this new routine. She'll start daycare next Tuesday. It's going to be every Tuesday and Thursday in the morning. If Miss Noelle does good, then we'll extend it to whole day instead of just the mornings. The lady did say if Miss Noelle gets really really sad and that they've tried everything to make her feel comfortable but she still fusses, then they'll call me. I really hope Miss Noelle will adjust fast and well. It's not cheap :-P and I think it'll be healthier for her to be in an enviroment with other kids and safe area to play at.

We shall see.

15 months and ear infection again

So Miss Noelle is 15 months old!! Of course we took her pics with Mr. Bear. She doesn't want to sit down with Mr. Bear like she used to. She likes to stand next to him or do something different, lol. Our little girl is getting big!! So what else did we do to celebrate her being 15 months old? To the Dr.! No, it wasn't really part of the plan, but Miss Noelle somehow managed to get another ear infection. She was having this nagging cough for over a week and it didn't look like it's getting any better. So the daddy took her to see her pediatrician on Monday. And the dr. said she's having another ear infection. What?! But supposedly kids who drink from bottles and lying down tend to get ear infections more often. I guess it's time to teach Miss Noelle to drink from sippy cup exclusively. She uses it to drink water, but not so much for milk. We shall see.

What else is new? Well, we may be sending Miss Noelle to daycare soon. Someone refers us this place and they just had an opening for infant (under 2 is considered infant). So we are going to check it out on Monday. If everything works out, Miss Noelle will be starting daycare very soon. For 2 days a week. We probably will start with half day and then to full day. I really hope she'll do well at daycare. Miss Noelle is very clinging right now, especially to me. I can't even leave her at the toddler class at church anymore. She'll just cry and freak out big time. Last Sunday, all the kiddies were crying in the room and they had to take Miss Noelle out cuz she was fuzzing too much. Sigh. Hopefully she'll be over this stage soon.

Miss Noelle is going to a 1st b-day tomorrow, I think it's her first one besides her own. Should be fun :-)

#2?

No, I'm not talking about anything poopy. And no, we are not expecting.

But it has been something on my mind a lot lately. I guess it's cuz a few moms from our playgroup are expecting their 2nd ones soon. And their little ones are Miss Noelle's age. Of course I talked to Dave about this, lol. And he wants 3 years apart for our next one (Lord willing!) I don't know tho, I'd like to be done with having more kids by the time I'm 35 (which I've only got a few more years to go, eeek). On top of that, I'd like to have 3 kiddies. But the husband only wants 2 (boo). So we'll see.

Am I really ready for another one tho? Probably not, haha. I mean it's so much work involved when it comes to having a newborn, and very little sleep. But I do miss the newborn/infant stage. It's just so precious. We were fortunate to be pregnant so quickly when we were trying for Miss Noelle (about 2-3 months). However, it's different for each person and each pregnancy. So who knows. Anyways, it'll totally be God's timing.

On a different note, Miss Noelle is cracking me up a lot lately. She loves taking baths and she'll scream or laughing out loud (LOLs) if you pour water over her head. It's a riot. I also successfully pinned her hair up on the side and she hasn't figure out there's a hair clip on her head yet. She looks totally girly! She also loves having cheese in her scrambled eggs just like her mama. I'm so proud.

It's been a challenge tho. Miss Noelle wasn't eating much lately, mainly cuz of the heat. It's almost always a gamble if she'll like the food we give her each meal. I don't really like that, I love/miss when she'll eat whatever we prepare. Ahh, lots of times I'm at the wits end of what to feed her. Any tips?

Motherhood's new high

OK, this is totally gross and TMI. But I just want to write a short entry about it, as a record keeping's sake.

Two days ago I was changing Miss Noelle's poopy diaper as usual. I was wiping and wiping, and I saw this little thingy hanging out. I thought it was just the residue but it wouldn't be wiped away. So I looked closer and it's a little "string" like thingy. I was really weired out at that point and I found out I could pull it. It kept going and then out it came. A piece of onion! Then I remembered there was onion in the pasta that I fed her for dinner a day before. This shows how well Miss Noelle chews her food :-P It's really weird that her body didn't digest it either, just came out exactly the same as it went in. What the heck?!

Mama's random thoughts

Figured I should put in some efforts and update.

The playgroup at church had the egg hunt today. Miss Noelle was asleep when they came in and told me the egg hunt had started. I decided to wake her up since I thought she may enjoy the activity and seeing other little kiddies. Miss Noelle was sound asleep and her head was soaking wet!! She sweats a lot, especially her head, I have no idea why. It took her a few minutes to be fully awake. They put down a few eggs right in front of her, because there's no way she'll actually go look for eggs. She didn't know what to do with those eggs, lol. Finally she took one in each hand. She kept changing the eggs tho, she'll pick one up, drop it, and pick another up. After that, I let her played in the play room for a bit. I really don't think she gets the concept of egg hunt yet, or even to enjoy it. I think they are more like another plastic toys for her to play with. I found some scratch-n-sniff stickers in the eggs, neato!

Miss Noelle loves her Baby Einstein My First Sign dvd. I think I may have to buy a copy when we return the library's copy. I thought I should change things up and played a different dvd this afternoon. I dunno if she just wanted to watch My First Sign instead or that she got scared by some green puppet in this other dvd that I played. She cried and was all smile when I changed to back to My First Sign dvd.

We recently discovered that Miss Noelle has daddy's eyebrows. Not the thickness/hairy-ness (thank goodness!), but the way they move. They look just like her daddy's eye brow expression. It's really cute. I love to see and discover pieces of ourselves in Miss Noelle.

14 months old

Miss Noelle is 14 months old today!!! She likes to clap, especially if we say "yay!!", she'll clap clap clap with a big smile.

Sunday was a nightmare tho. Miss Noelle went for a walk with the daddy while the mommy had some alone time shopping :-P She fell asleep after the walk, so the daddy put her in the crib for her nap. She woke up cranky, big time. We were able to calm her down a bit. But she was absolutely nightmare for the rest of the night. She barely ate, cried a whole lot. We just had no idea what was wrong with her.

My conclusion was that maybe she was upset cuz we left her twice yesterday (at church for the worship service and then again for the small group). And that we let her slept in her crib (least fav place of Miss Noelle, apparently). The combination of those made her one cranky child. She however, had fun chatting on skype with grandpa & grandma (my parents). She showed them how good a walker she is now and "talked" up a storm. It was a fun conversaion with grandpa & grandma Lai last night. I made my mom laughed so hard that she almost cried, lol.

Miss Noelle woke up this morning and was much of her old self, so hopefully whatever happened yesterday was just one time. Fingers crossed.

Social eater

We recently started switching to toddler food for Miss Noelle. She still gets some of her fav Gerber's greenbean & rice, but mostly she eats table food (regular food). But sometimes the mommy and the daddy like their food spicy, so we buy those pre-made toddler food for Miss Noelle. I thought she just didn't care for the taste or something, cuz she'll eat a few bites and refuse to eat anymore. Not even with cheerios! Miss Noelle loves her cheerios and sometimes that's how we got her to finish up her baby food :-P

Then we discovered that it's not that Miss Noelle doesn't like the new toddler food. She just wants to eat it when everyone else is eating. We sat at the dining table today for dinner and the previously refused toddler pre-made meal suddenly tasted good again for Miss Noelle. Because she finished the whole thing up without fuss! I guess she just likes the eating to be a joint thing. My little social eater.

naps = mama's happiness

We have family lunch at home almost every day. Dave and I are very lucky that both our work places require less than 10 minutes of commute. So since Miss Noelle was born, we try to have lunch together every day. And the daddy will ask the mommy how her day was during the lunch time. If the mommy said, "She took a nap!" Then that means the mommy's day has been good. "She didn't take her nap!" that means the mommy's day has been long.

You see, Miss Noelle's naps are very important to the mommy. When she sleeps, the mommy gets to be super productive with work. If she's goofing around and not takes her usual naps, then the mommy has to entertain Miss Noelle. When she was younger, babies tend to sleep majority of the day (oh those were the days). So she could be napping the entire morning if she feels like it. However, as Miss Noelle is growing up to a toddler now (the mommy: sniff sniff, she's not a baby anymore!), her nap time gets shorter and she takes less naps during the day.

On a good day, Miss Noelle will take a nap around 11AM right after her morning bottle. Yes, she's still drinking from a bottle, but we are teaching her to use her sippy cup. So hopefully she'll transition to sippy cup only soon. And then she'll take one more nap in the afternoon after her afternoon bottle. She used to take a night time nap before her actual bedtime, but she dropped that nap since she was 8-9 months old.

On the weekends tho, because it's not our usual set schedule, we're lucky if Miss Noelle takes one nap. It's OK tho, cuz the mommy doesn't work on the weekends, so we can play, haha.

Baby weight

Miss Noelle is almost 14 months now. And I'm still struggling with losing the baby weight! I gained quite a bit when I was pregnant and I thought to myself, "It's OK, once she's born, I can start losing the weight." Miss Noelle was born and I lost about 10 pounds instantly. But then it kinda stuck. However, when I started nursing her, my body burns 500 extra calories each day. So I actually lost some weight, even tho I ate more than when I was pregnant. Then Miss Noelle was old enough to drink whole milk and I no longer provide her with "mommy juice" (haha). I think I gained a few pounds since then. Cuz of my schedule, I just couldn't bring myself to the gym. So I actually quit gym late last year. I tried to use the exercise room at our apartment complex and it's pretty good. But last Saturday, for some reasons I couldn't get the door unlocked :-/ So I missed my one chance of exercise! Luckily the new Comcast On Demand has this fit TV thingy, where they have some exercise videos for free. So I tried a couple of them and they kicked my butt. I hope I'll be able to at least follow those videos a couple of times a week.

I was size 4 before I started going out with Dave. I guess I was really happy when we started dating, I gained a few pounds then. And then I lost some weights due to the wedding stress, lol. Our brand spanking new wedding album can prove that! However, after the wedding, I guess I was really happy being married, and the fact that I found joy in trying out different recipes and baking. Oh man, baking. Then I gained a few more pounds. But at least I was still going to the gym 2-3 times a week. Even when I was pregnant, I was pretty good with being active. And then Miss Noelle was born and that changes everything. I wonder if I could ever get back to where I was years ago? Sigh.

Playgroup

We are part of the local Las Madres group. But our group is apparently still new, so we don't have that many activities during the week. It works pretty well for Noelle and I tho, less choices means less decisions, haha. We usually have playdates on Mondays and Fridays, and I try to take Noelle to those playdates. It's just so that she gets a chance to interact with kids her age and to be in different environment. They also have park day/library story time/track walk/etc. during the week, but either the times don't work with our schedule or I just couldn't do it all. So I figured if I could at least bring her to the playdates, it should be fine. It's really interesting to meet other mommies too. We'll either exchange info on baby gears or stores, or just vent. Most of the moms are pretty funny and easy going. Because of my playgroup, I heard about this toy store called The Wooden Horse. We decided to pay it a visit today. It's located in Los Gatos King's Court shopping plaza. The store is bigger than I expected, but it's like a mom and pop store. They carry a great variety of toys, most of them I've never seen before. This was where I was "reunited" with my childhood toy - Calico Critters!

I was thrilled to see them again! I used to play with them all the time! I think I have a few different families and a whole bunches of home sets. Ah the memories. Maybe I'll introduce them to Miss Noelle when she's older. We ended up getting a wooden walk & roll pull toy. Miss Noelle was in love with it the moment she sets her eyes on it, lol. She carries the toy with her around when we were in the store. And I think it's a pretty good toy to teach her cordination. So the daddy got it for her.

If you are in the market for some fun and unique toy, give The Wooden Horse a try!

Co-sleep

When Miss Noelle was younger, she slept pretty well in her crib. So we thought, "that's it, she's getting used to her crib." But late last year, around November or December, Miss Noelle decided that she doesn't like the crib anymore. She'll cry frantically, standing up holding the crib rails and scream. LOUD. That happened so many nights, so we finally gave in. And let her sleep in our bed. I know there are parents practice co-sleep with their kids from the very beginning, so I know we are not alone. Miss Noelle sleeps pretty well in the bed with us. She'll go to bed around 9-9:30 each night and falls to sleep in the middle of the bed. Of course we surround her with pillows and turn on the baby monitor before it's our bedtime. She's a wild sleeper tho! She moves around a lot and likes to sleep on our pillows. She also likes to kick or play with us when she wakes up. I must say tho, she's usually pretty good when she gets up in the morning. Miss Noelle wakes up before us, and she'll just play by herself in the bed. When she's bored, she'll play us, haha. Either patting your face, scratches your lips or tries to put her binky in your mouth (that part is hilarious and gross at the same time). Last night I woke up in the middle of night and not seeing her anywhere. I freaked out a little until I found her almost to the foot of the bed. What the heck?! How she got there I had no clue. That also means she may have to go back to her crib again soon. I don't want her to roll off the bed in the middle of the night.

I'm just glad that we have a California King size bed, haha.

FroYo not for me

I come to the realization that I don't like froyo. I've tried them all too, pink berry, red mango, tartini, yogurtland, you name it. I guess I don't care for the tartness of froyo? I'll eat them, but will only enjoy them when I'm in the mood.

I'll have McD ice cream cone anyday, in a heartbeat.

Sign language?

Miss Noelle and I took a baby sign language class late last year at the local community center. Each class is about 30 minutes long, because that's how much attention you get from young ones, lol. I think it's more for the moms to learn the sign language and to teach their kiddies at home. Because sign language takes sometime and lots of repetition for kids to catch on. Of course, Miss Noelle gave me the blank look when I signed to her. She did smile at me whenever I sign "mommy" and "daddy", I think she knows those two at least. After the class was over, I stopped signing to Noelle. I dunno, just lack of affirmation from her kinda made me wondering if I was even making any progress.

Anyway

I still tried to sign to her when I remember to. Like "milk", "all done" and of course "mommy" and "daddy". Lately I noticed that she kinda mimics me when I sign "milk" to her. And that she'll wave her arms when she's done drinking. I'm guessing she's signing "all done" intently, because when I asked her "all done?" when she's waving and she'll giggle. That kinda give me hope, haha. Maybe I should bust out the sign language sheets I had from the class. Baby sign language is to help them to communicate, since they can't really talk yet, this is a good way to communicate with the parental and basically anyone.

I do also let her watch Baby Einstein dvds and one of her fav is baby sign. So I'm wondering if watching the dvd also helps her to learn to sign? I dunno, either way, I'm quite happy.

Another blog site??

Yes, so I decided to start another blog. Let's see if this one lasts longer than dj and/or xanga, lol. I want to use this to keep a record of how Noelle's doing. Miss Noelle is 13.5 months now and just started to walk. She really enjoys walking tho, I must say. She still can't walk independently too much, but she's getting there. We'll hold her hands and walk around. Bought 2 pairs of walking shoes for her last weekend. Baby shoes are expensive!!! Geez. I wanted to get Stride Rite shoes, because they are exactly what I was looking for. But guess how much it is per pair? $45!!!! For tiny baby shoes?! No thanks. I'd shell out the money, but seeing Miss Noelle is going to grow out of them soon. It's just not very economical. So we bought a pair from Target and found a pair of Stride Rite shoes from The Kidz Shoppe for $17. Not bad.

Until next post