A week from today, I'll be back in Shanghai on a mission to find our home for the next three years, while John stays home with Leah and plays Mr. Mom. Hopefully, he'll remember how to change diapers since he hasn't had any practice since November, when we did our first role swap.
We have pretty much decided on getting an apartment instead of a house, and there is one compound we both saw that we think might work for us. It seemed to be very family-friendly and had a very active and busy outdoor playground, with a pre-school on-site. Plus, there was lots of open space to roam.
In addition to househunting, I'm going to take a closer look at what's available there in terms of English language books, clothes, toys, groceries, toiletries, etc., so we can decide what we need to bring and what we can leave behind.
I'm not really looking forward to the long travel days and the jet lag, but I have a feeling I'll become a pro at it after three years of going back and forth.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Friday, January 8, 2010
18 months old today
We can't believe Leah is 18 months old already! It's so amazing to watch her grow and change day-by-day. Cognitively, she can understand so much and can communicate so well these days. It won't be too much longer before she starts putting words together.
She was supposed to have her 18-month check-up today, but we had a snow day here and the appointment was rescheduled for Monday. Lucky for her, since she's due for some more shots, including her second H1N1 shot. Turned out we didn't get that much snow after all, so while we were out running errands, we ended up going downtown to the Korean restaurant for some delicious food. Leah loves Korean food and pigs out whenever we go there. We can't believe how much she can eat. We've become regulars there and will really miss the great food and the nice people there, and that will definitely be one of our stops during our home visits.
Over the holidays, we finally switched her car seat to forward-facing. Even though you can do this at 12 months or 20 lbs., we wanted to keep her backward-facing for as long as possible for safety reasons. But she is starting to get taller and heavier and it was becoming hard for me to get her into the car seat, plus, her feet were touching the seat back, so we decided it was time. The only bad thing is that I can't reach over the seat and hand her things anymore. Now I have to throw them, but she thinks that's pretty funny, too.
Here are some of the cute, funny, and smart things Leah has been up to lately....this is a long one.
Touchdown! Since John is a huge NY Giants fan, we've spent a lot of Sundays this season watching football together (at least until the Giants were out of the running). Leah loves hanging out with us in front of the tv and sharing snacks. We taught her how to say "touchdown" and now when she sees football on tv, even a short tv commercial or something, she raises her arms up over her head and shouts "tah dah!".
Mom-Mom. Ever since the holidays, Leah has started calling me "mom-mom". She had already been calling me "mama" before this, but just not that often. And she would say "Hi da da" to both of us. Now, I'm finally getting my turn. She loves repeating "mom-mom" or "mama" over and over again and will call out for me when she doesn't see me. If I'm upstairs or something, I'll hear her shouting "mom-mom!".
New animal sounds. She already knew duck, dog, cat, sheep, cow, etc......and now we can add horse, frog and monkey to that list.
Name that ornament. One of her favorite activities right now is to drag us over to the Christmas tree (yes, we're planning on dragging it out of here this weekend), and have us quiz her on all the ornament names. She is such a quick learner and has a great memory, so after quickly naming everything for her, she can identify and point to all the ornaments by name. In fact, she can't get enough of it and she probably won't let the tree go without a fight!
Knock Knock. I've had the show "House Hunters" on the past few days. During the intro to the show there's a doorbell sound. Whenever Leah hears that, she says "nah nah", she made that association on her own. If she can't get a door open, she knocks on it and says "nah nah". It's really cute. She loves saying knock knock, and we always hear her saying that in the car while reaching towards the door and trying to knock on it.
Hugs and kisses. Leah is so incredibly affectionate. She spontaneously, without any prompting, gives hugs and kisses all the time. When we say "I love you" she has to give us a kiss and a hug. She often comes up from behind and just hugs us. When we're out in stores or in restaurants, she often reaches for us and pulls us over to hug our arms, and won't let go. We call it, "Leah's having a moment". It can get a little embarrassing even! But hey, I'm not complaning.
Leading us around. She still loves to grab us by our fingers and drag us around. She'll lead us over to the Christmas tree and make us lift her up, or she'll lead us to her kitchen and pull us down to sit and play, or push us up from sitting, etc. She definitely lets us know what she wants and is very strong and persuasive!
Bye! Leah loves to say "Hi" and "Bye" and wave. She says it all the time, to people in stores, to us as we are walking away from her or going to another room, in the car, or on the phone when she's making pretend phone calls. These days, with her pretend phone calls, she's actually making calls instead of just receiving them. She presses the buttons and says "beep beep beep" for dialing the phone, and then a bunch of babble, and then "Bye!".
"Hi Beppe". After over two weeks with Beppe, Leah definitely now knows who Beppe is, something which we will help to reinforce with pictures since she won't be seeing Beppe often. Towards the end of the holidays, she was starting to say "Hi Beppe".
"Drink your milk". At meals, I just have to say "drink your milk", and she'll take a sip (if she's in a cooperative mood, that is).
Tick Tock. Leah got a little clock for Christmas and I taught her that the clock says "tick tock" and showed her by putting it up to her ear. She found a clock in one of her picture books and ran over and got her clock and put it to her ear and tries to say "tick tock". Too cute.
Play kitchen. She loves playing in her new kitchen. It's her hangout, and the first thing she goes to every morning. We get a kick out of watching her stirring something and then tasting it. Today, she was pointing to the cookies in the display case and saying "ka ka" (cracker, we sometimes just call cookies crackers) and then she ran and got a little goldfish cracker and put it next to it. She also started using the price scanner as a telephone and made a bunch of phone calls today. It was hilarious. I took a video of it and will post it soon.
Hot Hot Hot. When her food is still a little hot, I've always said "hot hot hot" and blown on it. She knows what this means and will do the same. If something is a little hot, she'll say "hot hot" and blow on it.
Hup. When she wants to be picked up, she'll say "hup" or "up" and hold her arms out.
Ah-choo. Leah thinks sneezing is pretty funny. I was sneezing the other day, and then doing it in an exaggerated way, and now she knows the word sneeze and will say "ah choo".
There it is/There you are. She doesn't really enunciate, of course, but she uses the correct intonation and uses it appropriately when she sees something or when she sees us.
Potty update. I haven't pushed this at all lately. But she still climbs out of the bathtub quite often and pees in the potty. And at other times, she will just sit on it with her diaper, and when I check her diaper it is warm, so she does pee. It's funny, because even if she has her diaper on, she will check the potty to see if there's anything in it.
Stomp Stomp In one of her Kindermusik books, there's an elephant stomping. So whenever she sees an elephant, she will say "top top" and stomp her feet. The other day, she was in the closet pointing to something and stomping and saying "top top". When I looked to see what she was pointing to, it was one of John's ties (that he never wears) that has elephants on it. She loves this Kindermusik book and can do all the motions for each animal. She especially loves the page with the ladybug who can "stop and make no sound". I mentioned this already before, but she just loves doing this. She says "top", and makes the hand motion for stop and then the Shhh motion. She does this spontaneously all the time.
Other new words she says by herself are "baby", when she sees a baby, "good girl" since I say this to her a lot, "all done" and she says this with the tune and the hand motions we learned in Kindermusik, "cracker". I'm sure there are more, but this is all I can think of right now. She can repeat just about any word I throw at her. She understands so much and can follow instructions really well. She's a really fast learner and picks things up really quickly. This is such an amazing stage!
She was supposed to have her 18-month check-up today, but we had a snow day here and the appointment was rescheduled for Monday. Lucky for her, since she's due for some more shots, including her second H1N1 shot. Turned out we didn't get that much snow after all, so while we were out running errands, we ended up going downtown to the Korean restaurant for some delicious food. Leah loves Korean food and pigs out whenever we go there. We can't believe how much she can eat. We've become regulars there and will really miss the great food and the nice people there, and that will definitely be one of our stops during our home visits.
Over the holidays, we finally switched her car seat to forward-facing. Even though you can do this at 12 months or 20 lbs., we wanted to keep her backward-facing for as long as possible for safety reasons. But she is starting to get taller and heavier and it was becoming hard for me to get her into the car seat, plus, her feet were touching the seat back, so we decided it was time. The only bad thing is that I can't reach over the seat and hand her things anymore. Now I have to throw them, but she thinks that's pretty funny, too.
Here are some of the cute, funny, and smart things Leah has been up to lately....this is a long one.
Touchdown! Since John is a huge NY Giants fan, we've spent a lot of Sundays this season watching football together (at least until the Giants were out of the running). Leah loves hanging out with us in front of the tv and sharing snacks. We taught her how to say "touchdown" and now when she sees football on tv, even a short tv commercial or something, she raises her arms up over her head and shouts "tah dah!".
Mom-Mom. Ever since the holidays, Leah has started calling me "mom-mom". She had already been calling me "mama" before this, but just not that often. And she would say "Hi da da" to both of us. Now, I'm finally getting my turn. She loves repeating "mom-mom" or "mama" over and over again and will call out for me when she doesn't see me. If I'm upstairs or something, I'll hear her shouting "mom-mom!".
New animal sounds. She already knew duck, dog, cat, sheep, cow, etc......and now we can add horse, frog and monkey to that list.
Name that ornament. One of her favorite activities right now is to drag us over to the Christmas tree (yes, we're planning on dragging it out of here this weekend), and have us quiz her on all the ornament names. She is such a quick learner and has a great memory, so after quickly naming everything for her, she can identify and point to all the ornaments by name. In fact, she can't get enough of it and she probably won't let the tree go without a fight!
Knock Knock. I've had the show "House Hunters" on the past few days. During the intro to the show there's a doorbell sound. Whenever Leah hears that, she says "nah nah", she made that association on her own. If she can't get a door open, she knocks on it and says "nah nah". It's really cute. She loves saying knock knock, and we always hear her saying that in the car while reaching towards the door and trying to knock on it.
Hugs and kisses. Leah is so incredibly affectionate. She spontaneously, without any prompting, gives hugs and kisses all the time. When we say "I love you" she has to give us a kiss and a hug. She often comes up from behind and just hugs us. When we're out in stores or in restaurants, she often reaches for us and pulls us over to hug our arms, and won't let go. We call it, "Leah's having a moment". It can get a little embarrassing even! But hey, I'm not complaning.
Leading us around. She still loves to grab us by our fingers and drag us around. She'll lead us over to the Christmas tree and make us lift her up, or she'll lead us to her kitchen and pull us down to sit and play, or push us up from sitting, etc. She definitely lets us know what she wants and is very strong and persuasive!
Bye! Leah loves to say "Hi" and "Bye" and wave. She says it all the time, to people in stores, to us as we are walking away from her or going to another room, in the car, or on the phone when she's making pretend phone calls. These days, with her pretend phone calls, she's actually making calls instead of just receiving them. She presses the buttons and says "beep beep beep" for dialing the phone, and then a bunch of babble, and then "Bye!".
"Hi Beppe". After over two weeks with Beppe, Leah definitely now knows who Beppe is, something which we will help to reinforce with pictures since she won't be seeing Beppe often. Towards the end of the holidays, she was starting to say "Hi Beppe".
"Drink your milk". At meals, I just have to say "drink your milk", and she'll take a sip (if she's in a cooperative mood, that is).
Tick Tock. Leah got a little clock for Christmas and I taught her that the clock says "tick tock" and showed her by putting it up to her ear. She found a clock in one of her picture books and ran over and got her clock and put it to her ear and tries to say "tick tock". Too cute.
Play kitchen. She loves playing in her new kitchen. It's her hangout, and the first thing she goes to every morning. We get a kick out of watching her stirring something and then tasting it. Today, she was pointing to the cookies in the display case and saying "ka ka" (cracker, we sometimes just call cookies crackers) and then she ran and got a little goldfish cracker and put it next to it. She also started using the price scanner as a telephone and made a bunch of phone calls today. It was hilarious. I took a video of it and will post it soon.
Hot Hot Hot. When her food is still a little hot, I've always said "hot hot hot" and blown on it. She knows what this means and will do the same. If something is a little hot, she'll say "hot hot" and blow on it.
Hup. When she wants to be picked up, she'll say "hup" or "up" and hold her arms out.
Ah-choo. Leah thinks sneezing is pretty funny. I was sneezing the other day, and then doing it in an exaggerated way, and now she knows the word sneeze and will say "ah choo".
There it is/There you are. She doesn't really enunciate, of course, but she uses the correct intonation and uses it appropriately when she sees something or when she sees us.
Potty update. I haven't pushed this at all lately. But she still climbs out of the bathtub quite often and pees in the potty. And at other times, she will just sit on it with her diaper, and when I check her diaper it is warm, so she does pee. It's funny, because even if she has her diaper on, she will check the potty to see if there's anything in it.
Stomp Stomp In one of her Kindermusik books, there's an elephant stomping. So whenever she sees an elephant, she will say "top top" and stomp her feet. The other day, she was in the closet pointing to something and stomping and saying "top top". When I looked to see what she was pointing to, it was one of John's ties (that he never wears) that has elephants on it. She loves this Kindermusik book and can do all the motions for each animal. She especially loves the page with the ladybug who can "stop and make no sound". I mentioned this already before, but she just loves doing this. She says "top", and makes the hand motion for stop and then the Shhh motion. She does this spontaneously all the time.
Other new words she says by herself are "baby", when she sees a baby, "good girl" since I say this to her a lot, "all done" and she says this with the tune and the hand motions we learned in Kindermusik, "cracker". I'm sure there are more, but this is all I can think of right now. She can repeat just about any word I throw at her. She understands so much and can follow instructions really well. She's a really fast learner and picks things up really quickly. This is such an amazing stage!
Monday, January 4, 2010
A new year, a new journey
After a wonderful visit, Beppe left today in the middle of a major snowstorm. I bet she'll be glad to get back to balmy Louisiana. Wish she could take us with her!
Anyway, now that Leah's adoption is finalized and the holidays are officially over, our eyes turn toward our next big adventure. I might as well re-title this blog to "Our Journey to Shanghai with Jin-Ri". Yes, we have indeed decided to make the big move to Shanghai for 3 years as expats! While I have mixed feelings about making yet another international move, I am at peace with our decision and will try to make the best of it. It will be exciting to be part of all the progress and change that's happening in China.
We will spend this month working out the details of our move. An international relocation is a major undertaking, as we know from our previous moves abroad, and there is a ton of planning and preparation involved, so this will be a really busy month.
For the moment, the timing is a little bit up in the air since we still have a few loose ends to tie up regarding Leah's paperwork. We are still waiting for Leah's new birth certificate, and once we have that, we can apply for her passport, social security number and certificate of citizenship (COC).
So, I'll keep you posted on our progress, and in the meantime, will continue to bring you Leah's updates as usual.
Anyway, now that Leah's adoption is finalized and the holidays are officially over, our eyes turn toward our next big adventure. I might as well re-title this blog to "Our Journey to Shanghai with Jin-Ri". Yes, we have indeed decided to make the big move to Shanghai for 3 years as expats! While I have mixed feelings about making yet another international move, I am at peace with our decision and will try to make the best of it. It will be exciting to be part of all the progress and change that's happening in China.
We will spend this month working out the details of our move. An international relocation is a major undertaking, as we know from our previous moves abroad, and there is a ton of planning and preparation involved, so this will be a really busy month.
For the moment, the timing is a little bit up in the air since we still have a few loose ends to tie up regarding Leah's paperwork. We are still waiting for Leah's new birth certificate, and once we have that, we can apply for her passport, social security number and certificate of citizenship (COC).
So, I'll keep you posted on our progress, and in the meantime, will continue to bring you Leah's updates as usual.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Moved by the Music
Leah got so excited when John let her in his music room and started playing a trumpet cd that she just had to get up and dance. This went on for at least half an hour. She even dragged Beppe up on the dance floor! There's no doubt we're signing her up for dance classes as soon as we can.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Our First Christmas
We had a nice, relaxing Christmas here. It was a lot of fun watching Leah open her gifts and get excited about each one. It took just about all day for her to get around to opening everything since there were so many play breaks. After the major haul she received, she now definitely knows the word "present" and when we say the word, or when she sees a picture of a wrapped present, she points to underneath the Christmas tree!
Her little play kitchen (which took John and Beppe 4 hours to put together!) was a major hit and she has been having so much fun with it. It's so cute watching her busily stirring in the pots and pans, turning on the stove burners, shaking salt and pepper into the pots, asking what the play food is and then pretending to eat it, washing her hands in the sink, putting things in the microwave and fridge, and bringing us plates of food. She also loves playing with the cash register and credit card machine, and scanning the food and putting it into her shopping bag or shopping cart. Speaking of which, she just loves pushing around her new shopping cart around and filling it with just about everything and everyone (all her dolls and stuffed animals).
She drags us very forcefully by our fingers over to her kitchen and pulls us down onto the floor so we will sit and play with her. And once we're there, we ain't goin' anywhere! Luckily, there are three of us here so we can each take our shift sitting with her on the kitchen floor!
The other "big" things she really loves are her new little vacuum and her new play tent, but she basically loves all her new stuff and it's definitely going to keep her very busy for a long while.
Oh, and she also loves her new, soft teddy bear that her foster family sent and now sleeps with it and gives it lots of hugs and kisses!
I'll put up some pics later, but you can see what we've been up to in the slideshow....
Her little play kitchen (which took John and Beppe 4 hours to put together!) was a major hit and she has been having so much fun with it. It's so cute watching her busily stirring in the pots and pans, turning on the stove burners, shaking salt and pepper into the pots, asking what the play food is and then pretending to eat it, washing her hands in the sink, putting things in the microwave and fridge, and bringing us plates of food. She also loves playing with the cash register and credit card machine, and scanning the food and putting it into her shopping bag or shopping cart. Speaking of which, she just loves pushing around her new shopping cart around and filling it with just about everything and everyone (all her dolls and stuffed animals).
She drags us very forcefully by our fingers over to her kitchen and pulls us down onto the floor so we will sit and play with her. And once we're there, we ain't goin' anywhere! Luckily, there are three of us here so we can each take our shift sitting with her on the kitchen floor!
The other "big" things she really loves are her new little vacuum and her new play tent, but she basically loves all her new stuff and it's definitely going to keep her very busy for a long while.
Oh, and she also loves her new, soft teddy bear that her foster family sent and now sleeps with it and gives it lots of hugs and kisses!
I'll put up some pics later, but you can see what we've been up to in the slideshow....
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Beppe op bezoek
We're spending the holidays this year with John's mom and have been having a really nice time. We call her Beppe (the Frisian word for Grandma). The Dutch word for Grandma is Oma, which is so similar to Omma (mother in Korean), and we don't want to cause any confusion. Leah has been having a great time entertaining Beppe and showing off all her new skills. Leah has changed and grown so much since the last time Beppe saw her at her birthday party in July. Beppe speaks mostly Dutch to her and we're amazed at how much of it she actually understands. Leah's been getting a bunch of her presents early since we figure she's going to get overloaded on Christmas day anyway, and what does she know, right?
Saturday, December 19, 2009
An unfortunate First
Fortunately, we have an ER doctor and nurse right in our own family, and after consulting with them this morning, I decided to skip the pediatrician's office and ended up bringing Leah to a hospital with a pediatric emergency room.
Leah was such a good girl. No tears were shed at all! I held her in my lap while they took X-rays of her foot, and while they opened up the wound and probed around with a sharp metal object, and she didn't even flinch! She was just busy looking at a book and didn't seem to mind at all. I was so proud of her.
Turns out they couldn't find anything with the X-rays, and while probing the area, couldn't find any glass or puss or anything. But she'll be on antibiotics for a week and it should be fine. So it was unfortunate that it had to happen in the first place, but luckily, it all worked out and there was no drama.
Leah's latest
Just a few things that I forgot to add in my latest update of what Leah's been up to lately. Thought I would add these now before we get carried away in the holiday madness.
Even though it sometimes seems she isn't getting much out of her Kindermusik classes, she has clearly been paying attention because she is starting to imitate things she's learned there. In one of the story books we read, there's a line that says "Ladybug can stop, and make no sound", and the teacher uses a hand gesture for "stop", and then does the "shhh" gesture. Lately, Leah has been doing that totally on her own, out of the blue. She says "stop" (sounds like "dop"), using the hand motion and then "shhh!".
And the other thing is that we have quiet time in class (where we all lay down for a few minutes while listening to soft lullaby music), and when the teacher turns the lights on and off, she says "Get out your counting fingers .....1....2....3.....shhhh!" and then she turns on/off the lights. So lately, Leah climbs up on top of her toy box where there's a light switch, and she imitates this whole sequence. She holds out her fingers like she's counting, while making her counting sounds, and then flips the light switch and goes "shhh!"
Knock Knock. Now that Leah can open all the doors around the house, I've taught her how to knock on the door and say "knock knock". Not a bad thing to learn. In Leah speak, it sounds like "nah nah". She likes to knock on the door to John's music room, which is always closed. And she has figured out that the other sliding door in her bathroom is the music room, too. She brings over the footstool to the door, and stands on it and tries to pick the lock while she knocks on the door, saying "nah nah".
Whenever she's hungry, she goes to the fridge and tries to open it. Or she leads us over to the fridge to get her something. And when she is in the fridge, the best way to get her out of it is to ask her to close the door and then praise her profusely. It works every time.
She sings all the time these days, and her singing is getting a little more complex, too. Now it goes on a little further than just the "dah dah dah, dah dah dah" (to the tune of Jingle Bells). Now she keeps going. She loves to say the word "sing" and she says it perfectly.
A new word just this week is "cracker", which sounds like "ka ko". She says it on her own and usually with a question mark, "ka ko"? And her favorite crackers are Goldfish crackers, Nilla wafers, and of course, Teddy Grahams. I usually get a few bonus hugs when we're eating Teddy Grahams.
Ever since her birthday when she got her first stickers, she has loved playing with stickers. We now have stickers stuck to just about every cabinet, door, appliance, mirror, and piece of furniture in the whole house.
She just loves coloring in her coloring books. This is one of her favorite activities these days, and she's doing this every day. Thank goodness for these cool Color Wonder markers that go on clear and only work on the special paper. She loves to hang out with me on the playmat and color together (and even throws a fit when I try to get up). She decides which marker I can have and spends most of the time taking my markers from me and then handing me new ones (So bossy!). She understands when I say "go get another marker" or "go get one for mama", and she runs and gets it. (She also loves coloring with crayons, but we have to be careful since she's already drawn on the fridge, the dishwasher, the table legs, and the walls. So let's just say we've put those away for now.)
"Wow" is still one of her favorite words. She uses it all the time. Sometimes it's a big, long, drawn out "wow oh wowow wow!" that goes on forever, or a loud "Whoah!" But the best ones are the whispered "wow's". A while back, the neighbor's cat came up on our deck and looked at us through our patio door, and Leah gasped and then did a really soft "wow". And the other day, she found a clear plastic coin bank in one of her dresser drawers (the size of a can of cola) with Korean coins in it, and every time she would shake it, she would tilt her head and then whisper "wow!" It was really funny.
She loves Korean food. She gets so excited when we go to the Korean restaurant. Her favorite things are the soup with tofu, mandu guk (dumpling soup), and chap chae (glass noodles with veggies). She gobbles it all up and has so much fun. She sways and dances in her booster seat, tries to charm everyone by smiling at them, and loves to practice her chopstick skills. The last time we were there, she actually managed to use her chopsticks to eat the chap chae noodles, and she was able to use the spoon to drink the soup all by herself.
And last but not least, she is now physically maneuvering us and man-handling us. She started this actually a long time ago, with her second Kindermusik class (when she didn't want me to lay down for quiet time). If she doesn't like me laying down, she will try to pull and push me up. She will even grab me by the head and try to lift me! And then she goes around my back and tries to push me up. If I'm sitting and she wants me to stand and pick her up, she'll grab me around the ears and make a concerted effort to try to pick me up. She's pretty darn strong, too. So far it's kinda cute that she's doing this, but I'm sure we'll have to put a stop to it eventually!
Even though it sometimes seems she isn't getting much out of her Kindermusik classes, she has clearly been paying attention because she is starting to imitate things she's learned there. In one of the story books we read, there's a line that says "Ladybug can stop, and make no sound", and the teacher uses a hand gesture for "stop", and then does the "shhh" gesture. Lately, Leah has been doing that totally on her own, out of the blue. She says "stop" (sounds like "dop"), using the hand motion and then "shhh!".
And the other thing is that we have quiet time in class (where we all lay down for a few minutes while listening to soft lullaby music), and when the teacher turns the lights on and off, she says "Get out your counting fingers .....1....2....3.....shhhh!" and then she turns on/off the lights. So lately, Leah climbs up on top of her toy box where there's a light switch, and she imitates this whole sequence. She holds out her fingers like she's counting, while making her counting sounds, and then flips the light switch and goes "shhh!"
Knock Knock. Now that Leah can open all the doors around the house, I've taught her how to knock on the door and say "knock knock". Not a bad thing to learn. In Leah speak, it sounds like "nah nah". She likes to knock on the door to John's music room, which is always closed. And she has figured out that the other sliding door in her bathroom is the music room, too. She brings over the footstool to the door, and stands on it and tries to pick the lock while she knocks on the door, saying "nah nah".
Whenever she's hungry, she goes to the fridge and tries to open it. Or she leads us over to the fridge to get her something. And when she is in the fridge, the best way to get her out of it is to ask her to close the door and then praise her profusely. It works every time.
She sings all the time these days, and her singing is getting a little more complex, too. Now it goes on a little further than just the "dah dah dah, dah dah dah" (to the tune of Jingle Bells). Now she keeps going. She loves to say the word "sing" and she says it perfectly.
A new word just this week is "cracker", which sounds like "ka ko". She says it on her own and usually with a question mark, "ka ko"? And her favorite crackers are Goldfish crackers, Nilla wafers, and of course, Teddy Grahams. I usually get a few bonus hugs when we're eating Teddy Grahams.
Ever since her birthday when she got her first stickers, she has loved playing with stickers. We now have stickers stuck to just about every cabinet, door, appliance, mirror, and piece of furniture in the whole house.
She just loves coloring in her coloring books. This is one of her favorite activities these days, and she's doing this every day. Thank goodness for these cool Color Wonder markers that go on clear and only work on the special paper. She loves to hang out with me on the playmat and color together (and even throws a fit when I try to get up). She decides which marker I can have and spends most of the time taking my markers from me and then handing me new ones (So bossy!). She understands when I say "go get another marker" or "go get one for mama", and she runs and gets it. (She also loves coloring with crayons, but we have to be careful since she's already drawn on the fridge, the dishwasher, the table legs, and the walls. So let's just say we've put those away for now.)
"Wow" is still one of her favorite words. She uses it all the time. Sometimes it's a big, long, drawn out "wow oh wowow wow!" that goes on forever, or a loud "Whoah!" But the best ones are the whispered "wow's". A while back, the neighbor's cat came up on our deck and looked at us through our patio door, and Leah gasped and then did a really soft "wow". And the other day, she found a clear plastic coin bank in one of her dresser drawers (the size of a can of cola) with Korean coins in it, and every time she would shake it, she would tilt her head and then whisper "wow!" It was really funny.
She loves Korean food. She gets so excited when we go to the Korean restaurant. Her favorite things are the soup with tofu, mandu guk (dumpling soup), and chap chae (glass noodles with veggies). She gobbles it all up and has so much fun. She sways and dances in her booster seat, tries to charm everyone by smiling at them, and loves to practice her chopstick skills. The last time we were there, she actually managed to use her chopsticks to eat the chap chae noodles, and she was able to use the spoon to drink the soup all by herself.
And last but not least, she is now physically maneuvering us and man-handling us. She started this actually a long time ago, with her second Kindermusik class (when she didn't want me to lay down for quiet time). If she doesn't like me laying down, she will try to pull and push me up. She will even grab me by the head and try to lift me! And then she goes around my back and tries to push me up. If I'm sitting and she wants me to stand and pick her up, she'll grab me around the ears and make a concerted effort to try to pick me up. She's pretty darn strong, too. So far it's kinda cute that she's doing this, but I'm sure we'll have to put a stop to it eventually!
Monday, December 14, 2009
The Baby in Red
Over the weekend, we got to watch Leah strut her stuff out on the dance floor again. She busted a few new moves, as her dancing is getting better with all this practice. We attended the wedding of my niece and had a great time at their beautiful reception. Leah had a great time running around with her cousins, especially when the music started after dinner. She made a big mess of herself with her mac 'n cheese at dinner and surprisingly, her dress doesn't look too messy here. Yes, that's her running around with a wipe in her hands.
I got a chance to practice with my new camera and took a lot of pictures, but many of them turned out a bit blurry unfortunately. I'll post more pics and tell more when I get a chance...
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