Mini Pics for September

Building a new pony

Working the new Touchpad

Mini and buddy

Lego Trio

Whoa Nelly

Dump truck tower

Games

Somewhere in the past weeks, Mini has learned to play games and even created a few of her own.

Hide and Seek - but she only seeks
Tickle Tickle - likes sneaking up behind mommy when she is kneeling, pulling up her shirt in the back, and tickling
Cooking Mama - pots, pans, bowls, tupperware, utensils. If she can find it, she will pretend to cook with it.
Boo Game - Mini loves a thrill and gets really happy when you scare her. Hide around a corner, wait for her to come, jump out and say Boo. If you get her good, she'll get startled and even jump a bit...then she starts laughing.
Fall Leaves - substitute a pile of leaves with a comforter. Mini likes to jump into the bedding when it's heaped on the floor.
Feeding Time - this girl loves to share. When she has food, she likes to feed her horsies (zebra rocking horse and pink pony) and go "mmmm". There are plenty of food stains on zebra now.
Thirsty Fish - this one's kinda gross but Mini has a thing for drinking her own bath water. She's always trying to slurp the water in the tub, clean or soapy.
Fetch - this one is when Mama needs a minute or two to cook or take a bathroom break. Ask Mini to fetch her toys, remotes, napkins, random things and she'll do it. At first, she'd bring back the wrong things, but now she's right about 80% of the time. The other 20% is still a surprise.

What other diversions are there? In a week, Mini has standing playdates on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. These are in addition to the park, rec center, and house meetups with neighborhood babies. There have been a couple of trips to the library and book store but Mini makes too much noise and doesn't sit still to read (defeats the purpose). Lots of trips to the Whole Foods and farmers market. For museums - we go to Randall and Academy of Sciences.

These are all an attempt to get Mini out of the house and away from the television. She can get as far as turning on the TV and Xbox and then bringing the remote to you to load her Netflix faves like Dora or Curious George. She's also attached to the Touchpad and iPhone for watching Youtube videos.

But all is not lost to electronics, she does have a couple of preferred books. She'll ask to hear Good Night Gorilla, Blue Hat Green Hat, and Very Hungry Caterpillar on a daily basis.

mmm...bathwater

that hits the spot

Tooth #9

Tooth #9 is already peeking out. It's probably been there for a while but we didn't notice it because it's a molar.

Fork to Mouth

Mini's appetite is light and she eats like a bird. There are times when she gets hungry and can eat a whole banana and there are times when she's done after two bites. Guess you really have to consider a toddler's food intake on a weekly basis instead of day-by-day.

We did have a breakthrough today when I finally let her feed herself with utensils (she can eat just fine with hands). Plopped her in the high chair, gave her a fork and bowl, and let her go to town. Worked like a charm! She ate about ten times more than normal and had fun doing it.



Other developments: Mini is trying to communicate more by pointing to things and making a sound that is close to the word "this." She played with a cat and had no fear even when the cat nipped at her. She's also starting to interact with other kids. They will babble to each other and tug at the same toys.

The Return of Uncle Dino

Uncle Dino came back into town on his way to Japan. Mini seems to remember him from a couple months back. At least, she warmed up to him super quick and was having fun playing with him. I wonder if it's because he looks so similar to Papa Burrito or if she actually recognizes him.

Uncle Dino and Papa took Mini to the park so Mama could have some alone time. It was a bit chilly but Mini still had a lot of fun. She really enjoyed playing with the bars and the bubble window.


We're all having fun now!

Uncle with the assist

I'll lick my way out of baby jail

Happy Birthday OMK

Music Together Time

Watermelon break

Cupcakes galore

Cry It Out

Yesterday, we finally tried to get mini to sleep in the crib without Mama there to help her go back to sleep. We let mini cry it out when she woke up in the crib. She cried for about 10 minutes and then stopped. We peeked in the room and she was sitting up hugging monkey. She was just sitting there looking very sad and she would cry a little peep every few minutes.
After another crying spell, I went in there to pick her up and she calmed down. This is unusual because she usually only calms down with mommy at night. After a while she caught a glimpse of Mama sitting in the doorway and started crying again. This time, she wouldn't stop so i put her back in the crib and left. Again, she stopped crying after another 10 minutes (I've heard of other babies crying for almost an hour). She would cry a short burst every few minutes. Mama, who was sitting in the doorway the whole time, said she was falling asleep while sitting there with monkey and kept waking herself up falling over. She finally fell asleep because she fell forward on top of monkey without waking up.

Tooth #8

Tooth #8 is on it's way.

No Word Yet

So Mini said "Mama" in July but nothing since then. She even stopped saying that after a week.

She has started making "st" sounds for the past week. Not sure what she's trying to say... could be stop, star, stomp, sticky, stinky, stuck (all words from Dora the Explorer, eeks).

Today she may have attempted to say cookie when presented with a cookie. A "coo" sound came out as she tapped her foot impatiently for the goodie. What a funny girl.

And not sure when this happened but you can actually play with Mini now. She will wrestle with you and climb/crawl all over you. She gets a little wild sometimes and you have to get her to calm down.

Thank Goodness for Grandmas

Mini has been lucky enough to have grandparents taking care of her since birth. Today, Grandma Chan went home to Shanghai after a seven month stay. Prior to that, we had Grandma and Grandpa Fu helping out for a long time. It's been a huge help to have this extra support. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

We're on our own now, kiddo!

Tuesday Playgroup

We finally made it to the Tuesday playgroup and Mini had a wonderful time. Here she was second oldest and played so well with the younger babies. She walked around gently patting baby heads, distributed Lego pieces and sand buckets to the non-crawling kids, and babbled to everyone. This is the most behaved she's ever been in a playgroup.

Los Angeles

Road trip! We braved the one-way seven hour drive to Los Angeles and Mini did alright. There was crying and a need to escape the carseat, but she made it round trip. Food bribes and well-timed naps were key.

We drove down Friday night with a fourth meal at Jack in the Box (which turned out to be really awful).
Saturday was spent eating Chinese noodle soup and Baskin Robbins ice cream courtesy of Cousins E & C.
Sunday was an outing to Venice Beach, Santa Monica Pier, and Third Street Promenade. We also met Uncle L and Aunt V for dinner in K-town. Mini spent the entire dinner playing in the laundromat next door. She found the locals more interesting than her dinner companions. Pushing around the laundry carts while eating seaweed soup made her happy, so that's what it was.
Monday was hotel checkout and the drive home. We did stop at Burger King and Mini enjoyed the playplace, even made two friends.