Fun with cutlery

Leah has decided lately that she needs to have her own dishes and cups and silverware. Previously, I had been just putting her food on the sectioned tray that comes on the highchair, and I had one plastic suction-bottomed bowl I would give her. But all of the sudden, she decided she not only wanted the contents of my plates, bowls, silverware and glasses, but the very plates, bowls, silverware and glasses themselves. For a day or so, I even let her have them. She loved eating off of a real plate with real silverware and drinking out of a real glass. Don't worry, no dishes or babies were harmed in the process. So after that, I decided to go out and get her some of her own stuff. She loves playing with them, stirring the spoon and fork in the cups, and spends most of her mealtime playing with everything and sorting her food.

Kissing and Flossing and Brushing

These days, when we say "can you give mama/papa a kiss?", she'll give us a sweet kiss on the cheek or on the mouth, along with the sound effect "mwah, mwah". When she's playing with her Little People figures, she'll also have them kissing each other. It's so fun now that she's at the stage where she understands and can respond to things we say. I'll say, "go give that to papa', "go find papa" or something like that, and she'll run over to him.

Whenever I'm flossing my teeth, I always have to get an extra piece or two for Leah and it becomes a big sit-down affair. She loves to pretend to floss her teeth and started this quite a while ago, actually. But nowadays, the funny thing is, is that she tries to floss our teeth, too. We sit down on the floor, and she goes right up to us and is in there with both hands trying to floss, quite determined to figure out what she's supposed to be doing. It's cute because she'll be in our mouths looking really serious,but then look up and give us a big smile.

She definitely does not like getting her teeth brushed, however, and would prefer to be the one brushing our teeth. It's always a struggle, even with the two of us holding her down. But with almost a full set of teeth, there's no way around it. Pretty soon, I'll bring her in to see a pediatric dentist for a quick check to see how her teeth are doing and how well we're doing with the toothbrushing.

She can accurately point out all kinds of things now, when we say "where are your......?" So, when asked, she points to her nose, toes, eyes, mouth, tongue, teeth, fingers, hair, belly button. We're still working on finding her ears, though.

Daddy!

Leah just loves her daddy. And just recently, she has started calling him Daddy. This is interesting to us because we have always referred to him as papa, in the typical Dutch style (mama and papa instead of mommy and daddy). She uses papa and dada while babbling, but just lately, she's very deliberately calling out to him, "Daddy!". During the long holiday weekend, she has been saying "Daddy" all the time. She shouts out to him when she's looking for him and wants his attention. It's super cute. She is also using mama while babbling and seems to be calling me "Ma!". But sometimes she uses this when calling him, too. So far, no "mommy", so I guess I'll just have to wait my turn!

Crazy about animals

Like most kids her age, Leah just loves animals, mostly dogs and cats, but she's starting to get really excited about just about all other animals, too. We're always showing her animals in books and on tv. And since I'm a certified pug and cat lover myself, there's always a plentiful supply of pet paraphernalia in our house that she has access to. I'm very happy to pass down my love for animals to her and am hoping to join forces with her to lobby for a new pug someday.

Funny things she's doing nowadays are: Imitating animal sounds. I got her an animal sounds puzzle last week, and she always repeats "maw, maw, maw" after she hears the cat meowing, and she also tries to imitate the dog barking. She thinks the other sounds are pretty cool, too, but doesn't quite know what to do with them yet.

Also, when we're looking through books and magazines and she sees a cute picture of a dog or cat or teddy bear that she likes, she has started leaning over and hugging the picture and going "aaaawwww" and even kissing the picture and going "mwah, mwah"! It's hilarious!

She has also started saying "doggie" instead of just "dog". She's getting very vocal and talkative these days and just goes crazy when she sees animals on tv or in person. She ooo's and aaah's and starts shouting and exclaiming all kinds of jibberish in a really loud voice.

Her babbling is getting much more interesting these days. She says a lot of the same things over and over. I'd really love to know what she's saying. But I have the distinct feeling that once she starts talking, she'll never shut up!

Weekend update

This weekend, Leah and I are on our own since John is super busy at work and spending the whole weekend at the office. Poor John! So yesterday, after a really messy lunch that required a bath,



then a long nap in the car, I took her to the playground. Well, she zonked out the minute I pulled into the playground parking lot. Fortunately, the weather was mild and breezy so I could just keep the windows open and read while she slept for an hour and a half. It was a nice break for me. After she woke up refreshed, it was time to play. She loved the swings, going down the slides, and running around the big-kid ramps. She's very social and likes to go up and stand next to other kids and smile at everyone.







She's just a sponge these days, learning so much and doing new things all the time. It's so fun to teach her things and watch her grasp them. I forgot to mention in the last post that she's starting to shake her head "yes" and "no". So I'll ask her questions a lot, and she'll nod her head. Mostly "yes" at this point, which is cool. She also vocalizes a lot when being asked a question, as if she's conversing. I've been trying to teach her some baby signs. So at the playground, she started putting her hand up to her mouth and acting as if she's eating. I said "oh, are you hungry?" and she nodded "yes". "Do you want to go home and eat now?" and she nodded "yes". I had some snacks and crackers with me, of course, but it was great because she didn't even make a fuss getting back into the car seat this time.

Getting her into the car seat. That's been one of my new challenges lately. For a while there, she was great. But she does not like being strapped into the car seat anymore. Or the high chair for that matter. This started a few weeks ago, probably because the car was getting so hot in the summer sun when we've been out shopping, and she doesn't want to get back in. So I always turn on the car and blast the AC first. She arches her back and practically does a back bend and then twists around and stands up facing the front of the car and wants to stand there and play instead. She would love to explore the entire car if she could. Eventually, I have to force her in, and she's not happy about it. To make things easier, I raised the height of the shoulder straps since they've been the same height since we got her. That already makes things easier. And now every time I take her out of the car seat, I make the shoulder straps really loose, so when I put her back in, it's a lot easier to get them buckled even while she's twisting and arching. Then once she realizes she's caught, it's a matter of just adjusting the straps.

She's learning body parts and can point to things when I ask "where's Leah's nose?", she points to her nose. "Where's Leah's hair?", she runs her fingers through her hair. "Where's mama's hair?" She touches my hair. "Where are Leah's toes?, she points to her toes. She also knows eyes and mouth. She loves to comb her hair and my hair all the time. She also knows a lot of other things, and when I ask, where's this? where's that?, she either points or just looks at it.

She can stack 5, sometimes 6, wooden blocks by herself. She loves playing with the blocks, and she loves to stack them and notice the little pictures on them. When they fall over, "Uh-oh!". She can do the ring stacker in the right order now. And she can do the shape sorters by herself, too. She loves to play with her new little Fisher Price piggy bank and mail box also. She puts the coins or letters in the slot and takes everything out and starts over again. And we got her the little corn popper, too, which she loves to push and pull.






She's also starting to imitate some animal sounds. So when I say, "what does a cat say?" She says a really quiet "maw, maw, maw". "and what does a dog say?" and she makes a funny grunting sound. I have to go out and get her something with the animal sounds, because she's really catching on.

And just as I have guided her fingers to show her how her toys work, she has started to grab my hand and use my fingers to push the buttons on her electronic toys.

She says "dada" and "papa" all the time now while playing and babbling, especially when she's playing with her toy house. I always show her how papa comes in the front door and says "Papa's home", and how guests come over and ring the doorbell and sit at the table. It's really cute to watch her play pretend.

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And she's started calling out "Ma!" really loudly to get my attention. She is also saying "mama" when she babbles, but I think she's decided to call me "Ma". It's kind of like "Om-ma" in Korean, where the strong emphasis is on the second syllable. She definitely knows who her mama and dada are.

Playing catch-up

I feel like I haven't been that good about keeping up with my blog lately. I've had other things to take care of, plus Leah's just been getting into everything and has been keeping me pretty busy these days, so I've been going to bed when Leah goes to bed. And since the only time I can sit behind the computer undisturbed is in the middle of the night, I've been just too pooped to blog lately. I've barely even had time to figure out this awesome new Macbook we got recently! And that's also partly the problem. I've had to spend some time transferring things over from the old computer to this new one, while getting up to speed with how iPhoto and Mobile Me works. Plus, I was running out of space for photos on Picasa and had to start a new account. So, anyway, it's in the middle of the night but I've had some coffee, so here goes nothing.....

Ever since we said goodbye to the ducky tub (which is now a fun toy to play with in her room), Leah has been having so much fun during her baths. She has always enjoyed bath time in her ducky tub, but now we've taken it to whole 'nother level. She loves her new Boon Flo faucet protector since it creates a cool waterfall effect and is very interesting to look at and play with, and I like it because it keeps her from hitting her head on the sharp faucet fixture, plus she can't take it off no matter how hard she tries. She loves to open up her mouth and drink the water and stick her hand in it while the water's running.






She really loves having the whole tub to run around in now. She stomps her feet, dances and twirls around because she's having so much fun. It's really hard getting her out of the tub. She'd stay in there forever if she could. Even after I've drained the water out, she still loves to play for a while and I have to be creative in coaxing her out of the tub.

She has become quite the little monkey lately. She's just climbing everything in sight. A while ago, we had to move the couch away from the wall because she was able to stand up on the back of the couch and hike her leg up on the ledge between the kitchen and family room. Nowadays, she has started to stand up on the back of the couch without any support. I'll hear her laughing or doing something to get my attention while I'm in the kitchen, and when I look over, there she is, standing up on the back of the couch smiling at me, teasing me. Now, I have to be really careful and pretend not to react while I walk over to her because she thinks it's really funny and will start laughing hysterically and dive back onto the couch shrieking and giggling. It's a bit nerve-wracking, but fortunately, our couch is not that high off the ground and we have carpeting.




She's also decided that the musical table is a lot more fun to play with when you're standing on top of it. I'll be doing something in the kitchen and will hear the table sounds thinking she's just playing with the table, and then I'll look over and there she is, standing on it making all those sounds with her feet.





I've had to rearrange the upstairs furniture again because she was climbing off the arm of the the glider chair and trying to get on top of the dresser. And now that the chair is back in her room again, she's constantly trying to push up the seat cushion and stand on the metal seat frame, which I really had to put a stop to since it's so dangerous.



She's also started to climb on the subwoofer downstairs to try to get onto the TV console. She's always been fascinated with our TV and really wants to touch it, so I'll have to do some rearranging again to make sure I don't find her one day with her face pressed up against the TV, drooling all over it.

In the kitchen, she loves hauling things out of the pantry and the fridge. We've decided it's just too hard keeping her out of there since she makes a mad dash every time she sees them open, so the lower shelves are full of things that are ok for her to play with. And she's also finally trying to get the kitchen cabinet doors open. There are a few single cabinets that we can't use a sliding lock on, so I've basically just given those over to her. It does mean that she's making a huge mess wherever she goes now and I'm spending a lot of time picking up after her.




The other day, I took her to another library to play in the children's section. This library had a lot of toys and puzzles to play with and the other kids there had fun with her. They thought she was so cute. She also had a lot of fun looking at the magazines and books, pulling things off the shelves, and so I just basically followed behind her putting things back where they belonged. She had so much fun, she didn't want to leave, so we'll be back soon. I'm going to start taking her to story hour at the library. Plus, I'm going to sign her up for a music and movement class this fall.



This weekend, we decided to hit some museums. Yesterday, we took her to the Natural History Museum and she actually got really into it. She loved looking at the animals and the other exhibits, and was wide-eyed and gasping and pointing at everything. She loved running around and was really taking everything in. We thought it was pretty neat that we could take a 13 month old to that kind of museum and have her actually get something out of it.



And today, we took her back to the Children's Museum and she really enjoyed herself again. In the little "grocery store", it was so cute watching her push her little shopping cart around, picking items off shelves and putting them in her shopping cart.




Other things she's been doing lately...

Getting all her teeth in.....canine teeth and first molars are all coming in. She's drooling like crazy these days and must be having a lot of discomfort. Poor thing!

Clapping her hands and smiling when she sees people on TV applauding (yes, we're probably watching too much TV).

Making phone calls. Beware! You may be next! Our new phones somehow make it easy for her to get into our phone directory. She used to play with our old phones and never managed to do this. But she's already called Beppe (John's mom) a few times, babbling into the phone. But Beppe didn't mind! She's also figured out how to leave voice memos on our phone that play on our answering machine. (I had to look in the user manual to figure this out). So we now have 3 really adorable little messages from her that we can't erase. And she just loves to listen to them. She knows they're of her, and she listens intently and giggles and thinks they're really funny.

Falling asleep in her high chair. She gets really drowsy while eating lunch and will sometimes zonk out for a whole hour and a half. Funny thing is that when she wakes up, she resumes eating like nothing happened.





Saying Uh-Oh! She started this about 10 days ago, and now she says it all the time when she (deliberately) drops something.

Pointing out dogs, cats and ducks everywhere. Whether it's on TV, or in a book or magazine, or on something in a store, she's still obsessed with dogs and cats. She sees them everywhere when we're out in a store. She shouts "dog" "cat" over and over, and when I look around to find what she's looking at, sure enough, way off in the distance, or on a greeting card or magazine or on some product, she'll see dogs and cats. When I strolled her through the pet supply aisles of Target, she was so excited, she couldn't believe her eyes! So many dogs and cats! We've taken her to a few pet stores lately just to look at the animals there. And the first words out of her mouth every morning are still "dog" and "cat". But today, it was Uh-Oh!

Splish! Splash!

Over the weekend, Leah tried out her new baby pool and the cutest little splash pool and they were a huge hit. She hopped right into the baby pool while it was filling with water. But that pool was soon forgotten (good thing it only cost 3 bucks) once she saw us getting her new splash pool ready.



I bought it last week and almost returned it after I read from some customer reviews that the water never has a chance to heat up and some babies don't like playing in the cold water. But Leah just loved it. She was so fascinated by all the streams of water shooting into the air and was trying to touch each one. She was giggling and stomping around in the water and thought it was the coolest thing.







After we turned off the water, she went back and forth between running around on the grass, kicking the ball around, playing in the pool, and climbing up and down the deck steps.








Well, then it was getting late and time for dinner, so we eventually had to drag her inside and she was not happy about that! She zonked out while eating....something she has been doing a lot of lately! But she got to play in it again on Sunday and had just as much fun.



Check my new picasa album for more photos.

Ducky tubs are for babies

Tonight during her bath, Leah decided it was time to retire the ducky tub once and for all. For the past few weeks, even though she still has plenty of room in it, she has been sitting on the edge of it during bath time, or trying to squeeze out of it and sit behind it.



But I could tell tonight was going to be the night. This time, she was quite determined to climb around the duck's head to get to the rest of her bath toys and so in mid-bath, I decided to dump out the water and fill up the regular tub and just let her loose in there. I have an cushioned anti-slip mat I bought just for the occasion. She's been in the bathtub before without the ducky tub but, of course she always decides to sit right underneath the faucet and it's hard to keep her from hitting her head on it. The ducky tub was nice because it kept her away from that and kept her safe in case she slipped.

Anyway, she was so excited to have the whole tub to herself finally. She was dancing around and stomping her feet in the water and was happy to have access to all her toys at once. So tomorrow, I need to go out and get a faucet protector and some better non-slip decals since she is quite adventurous in the tub and would rather stand than sit. And wouldn't you know, she's already trying to climb out of the tub by herself, too.

Week in review

Leah has become a great mimic these days. She's always watching everything we do and then tries to do everything herself. She combs and brushes her hair, brushes and flosses her teeth, tries to put on her shoes and socks, tries to put on my shoes, pretends to wipe or blow her nose with Kleenex, and copies funny sounds and gestures we make, like gasping, screeching, gulping, and sighing, especially when she's in the highchair or in the car.




Last week, for her birthday, she received a little baby tea party set. I demonstrated how to pour the teapot and pretended to eat the little cakes and drink the tea. I only did this a few times, and just today saw her doing all of this by herself. It was so cute. So now we sit together and have a little tea party!

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She also plays a lot with her Little People house. We get such a kick out of watching her pretend play. She puts the little people through the front door, sits them in chairs and on beds and puts the baby in the cradle. We've been noticing how well she plays alone and how focused she can be.

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I've started naming her dolls and stuffed animals, and nowadays she will go and get them when I say, "Where's....? Go find.....". If we make them dance, she starts dancing, too!

Just over the weekend, she started twirling and spinning around in a circle! She can go around 3 or 4 times before falling. Something I've always done with her is carry her and spin her around really fast, so maybe she's copying that. She has also started dancing around in a circle, and bobs up and down like she's doing squats when she hears music. She did this at gym class last week and people thought it was really funny. They were impressed with her deep squats!

When I say "hello" or "yoboseyo" (the Korean way of answering the phone), she puts her hand up to her ear like she's answering the phone. She still makes pretend phone calls all the time. We got new phones for the house recently, so I've given her our old ones to use as toys and she runs around making phone calls all the time.

Speaking of running, she runs all the time now. She runs into our arms with the biggest smile. Sometimes we have to be careful because she basically throws herself at us. She goes off to play, but always checks back with us, often bringing us something, giggling and running at full speed. It's the cutest thing. You can tell she's so excited about her new abilities.



I got her her first pair of Nike running shoes last week, in fact. She's outgrowing some of her first soft-soled shoes and needed some shoes she can wear outdoors now that she's running. I was really looking for some sporty sandals, but they didn't have any so I tried these on her instead and she was so excited. At first, she was walking around taking big, funny steps while she was getting used to the feel of them. But soon enough, she was laughing at herself in the mirror and stomping and pounding her feet and running around. I wish I had thought to videotape it because it was hilarious. The sales guy thought she was really funny. After all that excitement, of course she didn't want to get back into the stroller, so I had her follow me all the way through the store to the cash register, and finally I was able to coerce her back in, although she was not happy about it.



Over the weekend on Saturday, we went to baby Sophia's first birthday party and had a great time. Sophia wore her beautiful hanbok and had her turn at the Tol table. Apparently, she will grow up to be a scholar and a good cook, since she chose the pencil and the knife. Don't worry, it was a plastic knife!



And yesterday, we went to the zoo, and boy, was it hot out! It was about 92 degrees, but felt like it was over 100 degrees. We put a lot of sunscreen on Leah, and she even wore her little zoo hat again, but we didn't want her to overheat so we only stayed for a few hours. We were so surprised she kept her hat on since she usually doesn't keep anything on. But at least she seemed more interested in the animals this time. She was pointing at things and really paying attention to everything.