M in her Lego box

M just loves climbing into things. She will climb into an empty laundry basket if I happen to leave one on the floor; she also likes to push it around the house too. The picture above shows her in her Lego box. She will take out all the legos and then climb into the box. It's really cute when she does this, although I do worry about her losing her balance and toppling over (which has happened!). She will sometime grab my leg and steer me towards the box, indicating that she wants me to step into it. I always tell her that Mommy is too big to fit in the box, but I don't think has quite grasped the big/small concept.

The orange thing in her hands is Ojo, a stuffed bear. Like her drag-around blanket, Ojo gets dragged all over the house, on the floor, everywhere. He gets pawed at while she is eating, while her hands has food it it. I cringe when she does that with Ojo or the blanket, however I have learned to choose my battles. The blanket can go into the wash. I try to spot clean Ojo. When it gets really bad I will throw Ojo in the washer and see how he fares. I don't understand why stuffed animals are "surface wash". They really should make them machine washable.


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M Speak

Words added to this list during Jan/Feb 2007.

I thought I'd start working on a list of M Speak. I was thinking of compiling such a list for the inlaws when they babysit her for 2 nights next month... just a little something to help them understand what she might be saying. I know I won't be able to sit down and complete this in one sitting, so I'm just going to chip away at it...

She tends to drop beginning and/or ending sounds to words.

Sign Language video links:

ASL Browser:
http://commtechlab.msu.edu/sites/aslweb/

ASL for Babies:
http://www.aslpro.com/cgi-bin/aslpro/aslpro

ASL at lifeprint.com:
http://www.lifeprint.com/

Born to Sign Infant Sign Language dictionary:
http://www.signwithme.com/002_browse_signs.asp

Words she knows how to sign include: apple, auntie, baby, cereal, change (as in diaper), cheese, cracker, daddy, grandma, grapes, hot, medicine, milk, mommy, more, pear, please, thanks, up, water. Of course, she signs some of these in her own way.

ah-ba = up above(when singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)
air-pay = airplane, she usually points up at the sky while waving her arm
air-peh = hair clip
a-j = orange color
a-j = Ojo (stuffed orange bear)
annie = auntie
ar = are (when singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)
at = hat
ate = eight
a-vee = heavy

baby = baby
baby = blanket
bah = banana
bah = black
bah bah = backpack
bah-doe, buh-doe = button
bahp-mm mahb-mm = no clue what this means, but she tends to say this when things are copacetic
beh = bear
bo = spoon
bo = bowl
bok = block (Legos)
bol = ball
boo = blue color
book = book
bye = pants
bye = black color
bye = bag
bye bye = bye bye

cak-ko = cracker
car = car
cell-yo = cell phone
cell-yo = cereal
chs = cheese
coe = cold
cook = clock
cup = cup
c-yo = cereal

dah = what she says to refer to something she doesn't know how to say
dah? = "what's that?"
dah-doon = thank you
dah-doon = daddy
di-doe = diamond (when singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)
dit = Stitch (stuffed toy)
doe = dog
doe doe doe = no clue what this means. it usually follows mahb-mm mahb-mm or bahp-mm mahb-mm, and she tends to say this when things are copacetic
door = door
doot = Stitch (stuffed toy)
down = down. she wants down, or she want to be picked up & moved to the other side.
duck = duck

eh = eight
eh-vee = heavy
elbow = elbow
enk = oink, the sound a pig makes
eye = eye

fay = vest
fee = feet
fee = three
fee = vest
fie, fye = five
foll = fall
for = fork
for = four
free = three
froh = frog

gag-m, gog-m = grandma
gago = cracker
gato = jacket
gagato, gagado = we're still trying to figure out what this one means
gee = green color
gogo = goldfish crackers (she sometimes signs fish for this)
gogo = twinkle (while singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)
guy = sky (usually while pointing upwards and waving arm around)
guy, ga = grass

hep = help
high = high (when singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)
how = how (when singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)

i-doe = no clue what this means, usually follows "i-know"
i-know = no clue what this means, usually followed by "i-doe"

key = key
kye = sky (when singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)

mahb-mm mahb-mm = no clue what this means, but she tends to say this when things are copacetic
mama?! = pick me up
may-no = tomato
muh-muh-muh = "i want a taste of what you're eating"
moe = tv/dvd remote control
moo, more = moon (sometimes pointing upwards at sky)
more = more ... especially if she signs more.
more = milk ... especially if she also signs milk.
mow = moo, the sound a cow makes

nana = banana
nana(nana) = "i'm hungry" or "i want attention"
nananana-uh! = same as above, but with emphasis :-)
nay = what she says when she sees herself in the mirror or in pictures.
neigh = neigh, the sound a horse makes
nie/nye = nine
night night = night night, goodnight. she usually signs bed when saying this.
no = no
no = nose
noonoo = noodles

oh-voe = Ojo (orange stuffed bear)
ot = hot
owl = owl

pea = please. she will also sign please when she wants to emphasize that she wants something.
peh = pen
peh-pa = pepper (Peter Piper picked...)
pih = picked (Peter Piper picked...)
purpa, purpol = purple color
purpa = poo poo

rah rah rah = ruff ruff ruff, the sound a dog makes
rah-rye-toe = ravioli
reh = one

sai = slide (at the park)
seh-yeh = seven
shak = sock
show = shoe
sigh = slide (at the park)
sih = six
sit = sit. either she wants to sit, or she wants you to sit.
sit = yes

ta = tongue
tar = star (when singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)
tai-to = towel
tea = tea
tee = empty
tee = teeth. when experiencing teething pain, she may say this and also point to her cheek/mouth
tee-too = tissue
teh = ten
too = two

uh uh uh (with arms waving) = asking for the Wiggles, her favourite tv show
up = up

wawa = water
wawa = flower
wah wah?! = where are you?
wall = wall
wee-toe = the Wiggles, her favourite tv show
why = white
wok = walk
wow wow wow = bow wow wow, the sound a dog makes
wuh wuh = wonder (when singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)

yeh-yo = yellow color
yoyo = cereal


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Paint everywhere...

No, no, no, it's not what you think. It's not wet paint. Thank goodness...

But we had a little surprise this morning when we went to get M. She apparently stood up in her crib, reached over and picked at a crack in the paint on the wall behind her crib ... and tore at it! It got all over the place ... on the carpet, in her crib/bedding, and even in her diaper(!). Needless to say I spent some time cleaning it up, doing laundry, and then moving the furniture around in her room.

Not quite the way I wanted to start my Saturday morning...

Teatime... today we're drinking Peet's Pride of the Port, a black tea. I drink a lot less black tea these days than I do non-black teas. Right now I tend to go for Oolongs, Pu Erhs, and Greens.

Yay, I managed to play a bit of The Sims today. It's a nice little diversion for me. Thinking about creating my next Sim Family, they'll be Indian. Got some names in mind. For the ladies, I'm thinking of Kayuri, Srilatha (Shree for short), Anusha. For the guys, maybe Vikram, Rajesh, Vignesh.



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B&B

Emily3Cat showed off her "B&B" in a beautiful rose color. I'm not sure what B&B stands for, and am trying to find that out. But it got me thinking about the other B&B which I am familiar with ... bed & breakfast inns....

It's been quite a while since I stayed at a B&B. That would have been Sept 2004, when we stayed at the Grand View Inn in Pacific Grove, CA. I really like the Seal Rocks room there. We've stayed at this inn twice. I really like staying at B&Bs, it's just so much nicer. My other favorite B&B is Grape Leaf Inn in Healdsburg, CA. Love the Chardonnay Suite there. This place has a speakeasy where they have wine tasting in the afternoons. Breakfast at this B&B is awesome. We've stayed at this inn twice also. The B&B that started it all was Inn at Depot Hill in Capitola, CA. It was OK, but I don't think I'd go back there cuz there really isn't much in Capitola.

Don't know when DH & I can make it to a B&B again. We're thinking of a trip to Carmel sometime in February. The inlaws have agreed to babysitting M for 2 nights. Yay! :-)

Need to start working on the babysitter checklist & info sheet ... not that I would expect them to read it.

--<>--

While reading a phonics/word book with M, she saw a picture of the number "5", and identified it by saying, "fie," which is how she says five. She tends to drop off the endings of words. Wow, I thought it was so cool that she recognized that number. We've been practicing saying the sequence of numbers 1 through 10. She skips over 1, 2, and 7. I can understand 7 being a bit more challenging with 2 syllables. I usually start by saying, "1, 2," and then she follows with, "free, four, fi, sih, (skips 7), eh, ni, te."

Still not doing very well in the nap dept. She had transitioned from 2 naps down to 1 nap. Now it looks like she is trying to shake off her 1 nap, and that is just bad bad bad. She is such a fuss bucket without any nap.

My latest challenge has been getting her into her highchair. DH is able to get her in, but she doesn't want to sit it in when I try to put her in it. On the upside, she is getting better at sipping out of a real cup as long as we hold it for her. She wants to held it herself, but we know that she'll fling it around and drop it, just as she does with her plastic sippy cups.

I finally sat down and sorted through photos from the past 6 months. I had to pick up the better ones for my inlaws. As I was going through the photos, I observed that the photos were much better 6 months ago (more in focus). Most of the recent ones were not very good because M moves too much.

During our last visit to the inlaws, she climbed the 10 steps up to the 2nd floor for the very first time. She got to the top and then immediately wanted to be picked up. She was extra clingy that day. Partly teething related I think. She's still teething (big bad molars coming), poor girl.



The two pictures above were taken outside The Fish Market restaurant in San Mateo, CA. It is one of the restaurants my mom likes AND it is relatively baby friendly. Mom loves good food, usually in restaurants that aren't very good for M, and is also picky about her food (not to mention sensitivities to foods). My restaurant choices are limited to "family" restaurants, chain restaurants, and any other place that is generally on the noisy side (and preferably with a baby changing station in the restroom). Mom wants to go check out Myth ... a dinner-only place and not baby friendly. Right now I can only think of 3 restaurants which Mom likes and where M would be welcome: The Fish Market, Mimi's Cafe in San Mateo, and Elephant Bar Restaurant in Daly City. Sigh... it'll be a while before I return to Chapeau! or Boulevard.

BTW, besides decent seafood, The Fish Market has a great flourless chocolate cake.

--<>--

In some ways it is a good thing I am too busy to keep up with current events. I don't even get to read or watch the news. And whenever I do hear of something happening outside my little bubble of a world, it's usually something bad. Why don't they report good news?

What is happening to this city?

I am shocked at the shooting of officer Bryan Tuvera, which happened not too far from where I live. And on the same day, there was a tiger mauling of a zoo keeper at the SF Zoo. It was a busy night for my friend T who works at SF General Hospital. Can't believe someone shot (several times) an Irish tourist while trying to mug him; he lived, btw.

I can't believe that someone stole a stroller 5 blocks away from where I live. Someone left the stroller outside the copy shop while taking care of stuff inside, and I guess when he/she came out, the stroller was gone. Who would do such a thing?

Ah, but this isn't as bad as my neighbors (I'll call them X), who live on the same block, who think it is OK for their kids (and their kids' friends) to run around on 2-story high rooftops. This happened on March 6, 2005. One kid broke and fell through a plastic awning of my adjacent neighbor's house and tried open the gate to run down the stairs towards the street. Unfortunately, my neighbor's gate has one of those locks where you have to use a key on either side to open it. So this kid climbed back up, tried to run across our plastic awning, broke and fell through, but managed to hang on and pull back up onto the roof. So DH goes down to X's house to inquire whether that kid was OK. The adults in that house gave him the brush off and said, "they were just playing." WTF, just playing?! I really want to move to a nicer neighborhood where the neighbors don't think running across the roof is a normal thing. BTW, these are the same neighbors who jumped over their backyard fence to their adjacent neighbor's yard just for the heck of it. Yeesh. The people in the X household also like to call other people in the neighborhood by derogatory names, well, everyone except perhaps my Russian neighbor because they can't think of a derogatory name for her. I really feel bad for the Italian guy who lives adjacent to the X house. He's a very nice elderly gent, retired, who spends most of his time doing volunteer work and stuff for his church. The X neighbors think he's gay, which he is not, but I think they jumped to that conclusion because he has gay friends who visit him (or was it his brother, I forget which, but it doesn't matter). On the upside, he is out of his house most of the day. ..... I can tell you lots of strange things about the comings & goings of the X household, partly due to having spent a year breastfeeding M around the clock. It's amazing what you see going out outside in the wee hours of the night. But I won't mention all that and other stuff (noise disturbances, domestic disturbances (complete with police presence), etc). I guess the best way to sum up the X household is that they fit every bad stereotype.

As for moving to another neighborhood, I'd like to add that it would be nice if it was a neighborhood where people wore helmets while riding their bicycles, and where they don't have 2 people riding on a non-tandem style bike (viz. a bike designed for one person). M will eventually get to that age where she will want to have her first bicycle. It would be nice of the neighbors set good examples for her and don't give her any reckless ideas...

--<>--

I have done zilch in the knitting dept ... see M's nap reference above. For a while I was getting quite a bit of knitting done in the car while she napped. Now I'm getting nowhere with my knitting. Wondering whether my first finished object of 2007 will be in February...

I still haven't touched M's mitten, which I botched. I mentioned this in this 12/25 post ... gosh, has it been that long? I'm thinking it'll be summertime before she gets her mittens. I should concentrate on working on the first mitt. Hopefully I won't suffer from SMS after that. No, no, not Storage Management System or System Management Server. That would be Second Mitten Syndrome (similar to SSS = Second Sock Syndrome).

Can't knit fast enough. I have three scarves to make, all new designs, one of them for myself. I suppose I'd do better if I knitted stuff for Barbie, lol.

--<>--

Itching to play The Sims. I recently reinstalled the game and started a new neighborhood. It will be a diverse neighborhood. My newest family are the MacKennas, Dubhlainn and Aedan. Dubhlainn works at home as part-time art investor while building his skills to open his new home business of pressing Elberberry Nectar. Aedan had a bad start in the Entertainment track when he missed his first 2 days of work (oops!), but is now doing well in the Science track.

--<>--

Oops, forget to add teatime ... I drank Peet's Jade Mist organic green tea. Love Peet's, it's a local company which originated in Berkeley, CA.

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My baby is growing

I can't believe my baby is growing. She's transitioning into 24 month size clothes now! It's been cold here lately. Last week I noticed that her 18 month size shirt was too short for her. When she raised her arms and stretched, her shirt would become untucked and more than her belly would show. This is not a good thing in winter. So I washed all her 24 month shirts/bodysuits last week, and put away her 18 month shirts. Most of her 18 month pants still fit her, so I'm taking my time washing all the 24 month pants. It's always sad when I have to put away her outgrown clothes. Don't ask me how many boxes of outgrown clothes/stuff in the garage...

M had her 21 month appt last week. She weighed in at 22 lbs 4 oz, and over 32 inches (32.25"? 32.5"? I'm not very good at remembering numbers). Her memory is definitely getting better. She seemed to remember the place, and started wailing as we walked into the exam room. In past visits, she would let us undress her, maybe get her weighed on the scale, and only start crying when the doctor got close to examine her. And she used to cry when she got her shots. Well she threw us a curve ball during this last visit. Besides crying upfront, she did not cry at all when the nurse gave her a shot. We were really surprised!



My MIL made this cross stitch stocking for M. Working on black must be more challenging than on white, I can imagine how hard it is on the eyes. I dabbled in cross stitch back when I was in college, but the hobby didn't stick with me. I much prefer knitting, it's easier on the eyes... (except when I knit with very dark yarn)



Here's M opening one of her presents. She is enjoying Christmas this year more than last year. She didn't know what to do with the presents last year (when she was 9 mos old). This year she knows that there's stuff inside that you can pull out. :-)

My MIL & SIL like to carefully unwrap their gifts, so that they can save the gift wrapping paper and reuse it when wrapping gifts in the future. Yes, I've even received gifts with the same gift wrap I used for one of their previous gifts. Knowing her predilection for saving gift wrap, this year I managed to use a total of 4 cm of tape to secure my MIL's present, a medium size box of about 15" x 10" x 7", at 3 points (main section, and each end). I prefer to gently rip the giftwrap, it's more fun that way. I don't save gift wrap, but I may save a few now that M is around. She can play with the wrapping paper, and even draw on it if she pleases. In fact, I'd love for her to draw on the gift wrap ... that would sure beat her drawing on the coffee table (which happened 2 days ago while DH was watching her). How do you remove crayon from a wooden table? Our poor coffee table is showing signs of wear. When M was younger, she would stab at it with pens, rattles, blocks. There are scratches and pock marks. We are definitely not getting any new furniture until she grows up...

M is becoming such a chatterbox, and she is quickly learning how to speak. She is learning sequences (ABCs, 123s, books/songs). She knows what comes next in Moo Baa La La La and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. She has learned a handful of colors. It helps when we have a night lite that changes colors. :-) She likes books we can sing to her like The Itsy Bitsy Spider by Iza Trapani, and Wheels on the Bus by Raffi and Sylvie Wickstrom. She loves Mother Goose rhymes.

Teatime... today we are drinking Lupicia Lichee Oolong. It's good. DH prefers the Lichee Black more.

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It's such a small world ...

... in the tv/movie world...

I recently saw Inside Man, loved the movie. Then I noticed that Chiwetel Ejiofor, who plays Detective Bill Mitchell, is the same guy who plays the Operative in Serenity, and Peter in Love Actually. BTW, I just can't see Hugh Grant as the Prime Minister, no way.

While watching Love Actually, I noticed that the Annie looked familiar. She turned out to be Nina Sosanya who plays Bellino in Cassanova. David Tennant, who plays Cassonova, is also the current Doctor Who, and Barty Crouch Jr in Harry Potter 4. Zoe Wanamaker, who has starred in a couple episodes of Dr Who, is also in Miss Marple: A Murder is Announced, Harry Potter 1, and David Copperfield.

I remember seeing David Copperfield, and thinking, that little boy looks vaguely familiar. It turned out to be David Radcliffe, who is Harry Potter. He was in David Copperfield a couple years before the first Harry Potter movie. It's amazing how he has changed over the years. And Maggie Smith, also starred with him in David Copperfield & the Harry Potter movies. Small world.

Emilia Fox... I've seen her in a number of movies, including David Copperfield, Pride & Prejudice, The Virgin Queen, Henry VIII, and Miss Marple: The Moving Finger.

Alun Armstrong is another actor I've seen in a number of things ... Bleak House, Carrie's War, David Copperfield, Aristocrats.

Charles Dance in Henry VIII, Bleak House, To the Ends of the Earth, Miss Marple: By the Pricking of my Thumbs, Gosford Park.

Mark Strong ... Emma, Henry VIII, Syriana...

Other actors I see around: Geraldine McEwan, Anne-Marie Duff, Ian Hart, Richard McCabe, Helen Mirren... it's just funny how you run into the same actors in various tv shows & movies.

Well there you have it .... a sampling of the crap I watch.

I get Tivo to record stuff for me. Not much coming down the pike. I think I have 2 episodes of Rosemary & Thyme & 1 episode of Inspector Lynley, and that's about it.

Ok, have I bored you yet? I guess that's enough babbling for now... :-)

--<>--

We're still having challenging naptimes. Today we went for a nap/drive at 1pm, I went to pick up gas in San Bruno figuring she would fall asleep during the drive... but no, she was wide awake and babbling. Drove back to Stonestown in SF. After a comfort stop at Nordstrom (she needed her diaper changed), we picked up a Strawberries & Creme from Starbucks (she loves that!), walked around, drove home. Guess what is the first thing she does when I open the car door... she asks for The Wiggles. She has a certain way of saying "uh uh uh" while waving her hands a certain way. That's what she does when she wants The Wiggles. So we go upstairs, watch the Wiggles, then have an afternoon snack. Still not sleepy. It wasn't until 4:50pm when I had to drive my mom somewhere that she decided to nap ... for 1.5 hrs, only because I woke her up cuz I didn't want her sleeping that long so late in the day.

As for walking around at the mall ... well this is getting more challenging for us. She is in a walk/run transitional period. She can't walk at a steady pace. It's more like bursts of speed. It can be hard to keep up with her! Then I look at the other kids, who look slightly older than her, who walk at a slow steady pace alongside their adult person ... and I wonder when M will do the same.



Although M is doing well in the eating solids dept, she still likes to munch on these veggie puffs. I think she can get the lid off, but she usually asks me to help her with it.

I was playing around with these two pics, trying to do something, but all I ended up doing was coloring the background. That's what usually happens when I'm trying to tweak photos ... I spend lots of time getting absolutely nothing done. I'm just not very good at this sort of thing...

I can't believe Christmas is coming up, soon! I've already received Christmas cards in the mail! Eeks! And I haven't even begun to think about doing that. :-( I am still knitting up a few things. There's always a lot more things I want to knit than I have time for. I will only manage to knit 3 more things for this Christmas, well, that's the goal anyways. And I'll just have to start my Christmas knitting for next year in January. I'm still working on T's Cable Scarf, which I hope to get done by Christmas or January.



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Ok, where did I hide it?

This is M with her great grandma, who is 90 years old. I think it is way cool that they can get to know each other. M has met her great grandpa, but I don't think she remembers him since she was under 3 months back then. Unfortunately he passed away in June 2005.

Went searching for the little instruction manual for M's Britax Marathon car seat, briefly yesterday morning as we were trying to gather the traveling circus and run out the door to go to visit the inlaws. Omigosh, I think I lost the manual, I have no idea where it is. It was strapped to the car seat when we first got it, and I know I snipped the string and put the manual in a "safe" place. I just have no idea where that might be. :-( Where would you go look? It's not in the storage box labeled "product manuals" (which even has a file folder for "baby" stuff). Sigh....

Well, would you believe it took us 40 minutes to remove the car seat from the car, and figure out how to remove the cover, and then replace it with the spare we got? It's tricky getting the straps off. Omigosh, what a mess there was in the car ... crumbs and other crud on the seat. Had to dustbuster it, and wipe the seat.

We thought we'd turn the seat around to forward facing when we put it back in, but we couldn't get the latch thing hooked up right, I think more "surgery" is needed to get it in perfectly. So we'll have to find the manual to make sure we're doing it right. So we put the car seat back in rear facing, although it looks a little different from how we had it before. Well, at least it is secure and not shifting around much.

--<>--

I think M is pointing at the Christmas tree or the Christmas tree lights.

M is learning her colors. She knows pink, red, blue, white, green, purple, yellow. She learned most of these from a color changing night lite we have in the kitchen.

She has added "how" to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

Christmas is coming up. DH & I are thinking of a combined Christmas gift for ourselves. Ideas we're floating around include His & Hers Macs (he keeps telling me I should upgrade/convert to a MacBook Pro) and a 3 day babysitter so we can have a weekend getaway (Carmel? Healdsburg?). I'm leaning towards the latter... :-)

I have finally gotten around to reinstalling The Sims and all 7 expansion packs on my "new" Sony PCG-GRV680 laptop. (I've mentioned the laptop upgrade here, and here.) AND I have actually launched the game and played it a bit. This is definitely going to interfere with my knitting....

Teatime ... today we are drinking Yamamotoyama Genmai Cha. M likes to drink tea. I pour some into her sippy and then add water to cool it down for her. She especially likes tea on cold days.








This is M sleeping on her grandparents' bed. She will plop her head down on her dad's & grandpa's shoulder for naptime, but she rarely does it for me. When I try to get her to do that, she whines & resists, twisting out of my arms to get down. Yes, I'm still using the car to get her to nap. However they can get her to fall asleep on their shoulder and then later put her down for the rest of her nap.

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Learning manners

Wow... yesterday, M said "please" for the first time on her own. She wanted something out of her reach. She reached out in the direction of that object (the dvd remote), and said please in her own way, a combination of "pea" and "pay".

She already knows how to say "thank you", which comes out as, "da doon," with the correct inflection. She also says that for "you're welcome" too.

We created new words on the fridge today (with her alphabet fridge magnets): voracious, hungry, famished, & temp. Then we stopped there since we used up all the vowels.

M is getting better at recognizing letters. We can write "A", and she'll tell us what it is. Works with "B" and "C" too. :-) Sometimes she'll point to a letter on something and say, "A!"

She's adding to new words when singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Gogo = twinkle; tar/ar = star; wuhwuh = wonder; ar = are; aba = up above; hi = high; dido = diamond; ky = sky.

It had gotten really cold here a week or so ago, so we started to turn on the heater in the evenings to warm up the house. We also use an electric throw to warm up M's crib (we remove the electric throw when we put her in the crib to sleep). We put her sleep sack in the crib underneath the electric throw so that it's nice & warm when we put her in it. We also started to put socks on her feet too.

Now that it doesn't feel as cold at night, or maybe we have acclimated to the cold change, she still wants socks on her feet at night. When we lay her onto her sleepsack, she will remind us about the socks -- by saying & signing socks -- before we zip her up.

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Perspicacious Bordeaux

M has a Leap Frog alphabet fridge magnet toy which she loves to play with. It comes with each letter of the alphabet in both uppercase and lowercase. That's 52 letters total. I thought that would overwhelm her at first, so I only gave her the uppercase letters to start with. We (well mostly I) love to try to spell words where each letter only appears once. Boy is it a challenge. We have since introduced the lowercase letters, so we have 52 letters to play with. Ah, much much better! Perspicacious Bordeaux are two words I came up with, then I ran out of vowels. I wonder whether there is a word list somewhere which enumerates words where each letter appears only once, and another one which enumerates words where each letter appears at most twice. Surely there must be such a list out there...

M is doing better with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. In addition to "aba" (up above), "hi" (high), "ky" (sky), she now says "ar" (are), and I think she's working on her version of diamond.

She's learning so much. She recognizes lots of words. We know this when we speak to her, by how she responds to us, when we ask her to point to something, etc. Some of the words she understands includes:

apple ... she can say this, and can sort of sign it
banana ... she says "ba" or "nana(nana)", and can sort sign it
carrot
cereal
cheese ... she says "chs" or "sss", and definitely can sign it
cracker ... she can sign this
goldfish cracker
milk ... she can say & sign this
noodle (spaghetti, ramen, etc) ... she says "noonoo"
ravioli ... she tries to say it, "rararara"
tea ... she says "tay", "te" or "tee"
tomato
waffle ... "wawawawa"
water ... "wawa"


cold ... "co"
down ... she says this when I'm trying to put her in the highchair & she doesn't want to sit in it. she also says this when we're going down an escalator.
green ... "gee"
hot ... "ot"
purple ... "purpa"
red
up ... if she doesn't say it or sign it, she'll raise her arms up and whine to be picked up

bird
cat
dog ... she says "dag"
fish
flower ... "wawa"
frog
grass ... she says "ga" or "ge".
rabbit
sky ... she points up and says "ky".

backpack ... "baba"
ball ... she can say this
bath/bathtime
bed
blanket
book ... she can sorta say this, definitely can sign it
bowl ... she can say this
button .... "bado"
car
chair
clock
computer
crayon
cup
diaper
door
fork
hat ... "at"
jacket
key
lotion
pants
pen
remote ... she says "mo" and associates it with watching The Wiggles (sigh)
shirt
shoes
slippers
socks
sofa
spoon
straw
table
tv

Teatime ... I made a pot of Lupicia's Huang Jin Gui Oolong tea. It's not bad, but I much prefer the their 6227 Ming Jian Jin Xuan Oolong tea.

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M's aftrenoon naps

I can't believe it. This is the second day in a row where I have managed to get M to rest on my shoulder to fall asleep, and then I successfully placed her in her playpen for her nap. During yesterday's nap, she woke briefly & cried when I placed her in the playpen, but then settled down to sleep. Today she didn't wake and remained sleeping when I put her down. I hope this new trend will continue. I think I've found a sweet spot for her naps, right after her lunch around 12:30pm. Well we'll have to see whether I can get her to nap this way for the rest of the week. It's really too early to say... who knows, maybe these two days have been flukes.

Today, I am drinking Lupicia's 8516 Bravissimo tea. It's a pretty green tea with flower petals & fruit pieces. And it's yummy too! I'm doing pretty good with their teas so far, the only one which wasn't really my cup of tea was the darjeeling, but I think that had more to do with darjeeling type teas not being my thing rather than a negative comment about their tea. All their tea is of high quality.

M is trying to sing "twinkle twinkle little star" along with us. She says "aba" and "sky" when we sing "up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky..."

We went to the park yesterday. She's so funny. We start by spending 10-15 minutes in a swing. Then she wants me to pick her up. Then she points at the adjacent swing, indicating that she wants to swing in it. I'm thinking, "huh?" It's just like the swing I just took her out of! What's the difference? But M is funny that way. It's the same thing with the seesaw, she'll want to ride on one side, then she'll want the other side. We didn't have much fun on the slides yesterday. We would "stick" to the slide instead of sliding smoothly downwards. I think it had something to do with the weather, the cold, the fog, the moisture. So that wasn't too fun.

Well, I'm going to try to do a little knitting now that M is sleeping right now. She'll probably wake up in about 10 minutes. Give her a few minutes to slowly wake up, and then it'll be Wiggle time. Her favorite show is The Wiggles. I've got so many of the lyrics memorized now, and the tunes just run through my head even when I don't want them to. I'm currently working on another "mindless knitting" hat, and it is really mindless knitting, a simple checkerboard pattern with plain and seed stitch squares. I'm also working an a dishcloth which has Purl 2 Together through back loop, and I am reminded of while it has been almost two years since I last did a pattern with P2-tbl! And it is quite a biscuit to do in 100% cotton yarn....


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Musical Lapsits

M & I try to stop by the library on Saturday mornings for Musical Lapsit. We usually don't make it, due to me moving very slowly on a weekend morning, and/or her nap/eating schedule. We went for the first time many months ago when she was much younger and didn't seem to understand or enjoy it. Then we tried it again, today and last Saturday, and she clearly had more fun. They sing songs and read books. M alternates between watching Ann (the librarian) and looking at all the other people/kids in the audience. She isn't quite doing the interactive sing/move-along parts of Musical Lapsit, but I think she'll join in soon enough.

They had a Halloween themed Musical Lapsit today. Ann read a couple of Halloween themed books, and we sang some Halloween themed songs. Some of the kids came in their Halloween costumes, very cute.

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Vertigo

I was reading a discussion about the stuff we collect, and lots of things came up like pens and watches. Well, I'm not a watch collector, and I wouldn't call myself a fountain pen collector, but I do love fountain pens and have several. Although I can't say that I have used many of them lately. I need to be careful not to use the fountain pens around my little girl because she's in that phase where she goes stab! stab! with pens & crayons. Eeks! That would be instant death to my fountain pen nibs.

I love writing with fountain pens -- I think it's because I have a "lazy" hand -- and my favorite daily pen is an ST Dupont in a beautiful red lacquer with squares pattern. You can see what it looks like on the rollerball version:
http://www.pensinasia.com/olympio_l...o_rb-dupont.htm
They have a newer pen that is similar which has a diamond pattern (instead of the squares). Have had other pens, Mont Blanc, Waterman, Parker, & Cartier, but seem to return to the Dupont for some reason.

Now if only I can improve on my handwriting. It has deteriorated over the years with my increased typing. I think the only thing I really write these days are a few checks now and then, scribbling knitting paterns, jotting down M's feeding & diaper changes (yes, we still do this out of habit), and shopping lists. I have to make lists for everything, otherwise I'll forget. Oftentimes I think of something to put on a list, but forget before I get around to actually writing it down. This is why I still haven't gotten around to picking up more olive oil... it's just not something I think about when I'm shopping.

M likes to "write" with pens and crayons. We try to encourage her to write ON paper, but she has also written on DVD covers, on books (covers & inside pages!), on the coffee table, on boxes, on her chair, on the ottoman, and I'm sure there are other places I just can't think of right now or haven't yet discovered. Sigh. Our poor coffee table is showing signs of M wear, she has stabbed the thing with pens and other hard objects, and there seem to be a lot more scratches & pock marks. You can sort of see this in my knitting photos, where the earlier photos show a more pristine table, and the later photos show how much the table has been abused since. We are not getting new furniture until she is much older.

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Bad bench! Bad bad bench!

We had a bit of a scare on Wednesday when we went to Target at Serramonte. M was fussy when I took her out of the car and as we walked from the car to Target. So I set her down on the bench outside Target so I could grab some water or snack from my backpack. While I was getting into the backpack, I heard a cry from her and found her on the ground behind the bench!! The bench had a big gap in the lower back part, and the bottom of the bench was short in that it didn't really go all the way back either. So M had wiggled enough to fall through that big gap and landed on the concrete floor behind/under the bench. Oooooh, she was NOT happy about that. She must have bumped her lip/mouth on the way down because she ended up with a bruise under her lip, plus a cut on the inner side of her lip where it was bleeding. She was lying down when I saw her, but it looked like her head was OK. So I held her, calmed her down, wiped off the blood, gave her some water. After a while I think she was OK. Treated her to a nice cool refreshing Strawberry & Creme Frappuchino from Starbucks, and then she was walking around the mall. Yep, she seems OK. I was worried about her sleeping through the night, but she slept ok.

I will have to remember to avoid benches and chairs with big gaps in the back. They're so dangerous!!!

M has quite a lot to say these days, she's turning out to be quite the chatterbox. She tries to repeat what we say. We have to really be careful of what we say around her. Was changing her diaper the other day and referred to Desitin diaper rash cream as "butt paste", which she tried to repeat, "buh buh." She says, "wah wah," with the correct intonation for flower (which has a much different demanding tone from her, "wah! wah!" or, "wah wah?" which means, "where are you," or, "where are you going?". She says, "dah doon," with the correct intonation for thank you. She can say things like ball and door. I think the one and maybe two syllable words are easier for her. She still hasn't quite gotten banana right; she says, "nanana," or "ba!", but even combining the two different syllables. Yet she has her own language too. Lately she has been saying, "mabu mabu. ga ga? doe doe doe." No idea what that means. She's been saying, "mabu mabu," for a while now and we think it's usually when things are going well, she's happy, etc. She sometimes says, "ga ga?" while we are watching The Wiggles, particularly during the Quack Quack song, so we always thought she was trying to say, "quack quack." And then later on she added, "doe doe doe," which we thougth was her attempt to sing along with the Knead Some Dough song.

The Wiggles is still her favorite thing to watch on TV. Now she will try to let us know that she wants to watch it by waving her hands/arms in a certain way and/or waving her hands with pointed fingers (can you point your fingers and do the twist?). If she had it her way, she'd be watching The Wiggles all day long. Of course we won't let her do that.

Right now I am sipping a cup of Lupicia 8506 Tokio green tea which is described as, "green tea delicately flavored with sweet berries." It's not bad, but I think I prefer the 8223 Grapefruit Green a little more. They're both very good flavored green teas. Their teas come in inverted pyramid shaped tea bags which give the tea plenty of room. And the tea bags still smell so aromatic even after you are done with it.

Earlier this week I tried their 5223 Sakuranbo black tea. It is described as, "black tea with fresh Japanese cherry flavor. Its sour-sweet aroma is taste-catching and its cute topping with the image of red ripened cherries is also eye-catching. It's good, but I seem to be more into green teas lately.

Am currently trying to decide whether to make another 3AM Cable Hat, or do a simple rollbrim hat in mostly stockinette. I could use the "mindless" knitting of the latter cuz I'm having a hard time concentrating on knitting right now. Yes, we're still using the car as a "prop" to get M to sleep, but she has become increasingly resistant to the car, and I there have been times where she is clearly tired, yet she managed to stay awake while I'm driving around for an hour! So I'm not getting as much knitting as I would hope while she is napping in the car.

On Tuesday we had a power outage around 12:30pm. I was about to give M her lunch, and then maybe go for a little car ride. Then the power went out and my next thought was, "omigosh, how am I going to get the car out of the garage??" Well the power came back on in about an hour, and we left the house after that.

Don't forget to set your clocks back one hour this weekend...

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House hunting again

We're starting to look at Open Houses again. Two Sundays ago we looked at 8 to 10 houses in Sunnyvale, and saw one we kinda liked. It had a comfortable sensible layout, the only two downsides is being located at the outer corner of at "L" shaped turn on the street and a possibly busy 4 lane road on the otherside of the backyard fence. Well, we were thinking of going to see the house again last Sunday, assuming there would be another open house, but we discovered that somebody had already made an offer on the house and it is now sale pending. Geez, and I thought the housing market was slowing down???

Didn't see too many houses last Sunday. There weren't that many open in Sunnyvale that we were interested in. Instead, we went to look at 2 houses in San Mateo, one of which we had already seen 2 years ago. That house is selling for $50k more than the asking price from 2 years ago. Still didn't like the house this time around either.

Still looking....

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Lupicia

Have been sampling a few of the teas from Lupicia, a new tea shop at Stonestown. They have 2 shops in San Francisco, one at Stonestown, and the other is downtown at the San Francisco Center. Their 3rd US shop is in Hawaii, a bit far for me to go to pick up a few packages of tea. They have a wonderful setup in their store. A long counter displays all their teas in tiny tins which you can pick up, open, & sniff as much as you like. It's very user friendly. They have A LOT of teas to choose from. It will take me a while to work through all of them since I can only pick up as much tea as I can consume over a short period of time.

Two days ago I tried their 5202 Breakfast Earl Grey, which I liked. It was very aromatic. Yesterday I tried their 5110 La Belle Epoque, a darjeeling/black tea blend. I haven't really explored darjeeling and don't think it's for me right now. Perhaps it would have tasted better if I poured a bit of milk into my cup. Today I am drinking 8223 Grapefruit Green, which I like very much. It's kinda like the Pink Grapefruit tea from The Republic of Tea.

Their tea bags are pyramid shaped which gives the tea room to expand as you brew it. Very nicely done. The string is a bit on the short side. They gave me a clip to hold the string, you just put the clip over your cup.

I also have some loose tea of theirs. I'm exploring their Oolongs. Their Ming Jian Jin Xuan is a pretty decent tea for daily drinking. I also like their 5224 Lichee Black and their 8231 Momo Oolong Super Grade (a peach flavored tea).

I usually make a pot of tea on weekends, and use tea bags on weekdays. It's just easier that way.


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Clothes, Clothes, Clothes

M has way more clothes than I do. I'm sure of it. She's currently wearing 18 month size clothes. I recently did an inventory of all her clothes in the next size up, viz. 24 months, size 2, and size 2T. What's the difference between "2" and "2T" anyways??

Well, here's an enumeration of what I have in size 24mos/2/2T. I guess I should stop shopping for that size...

Sleeveless/short sleeve tops : 14

Long sleeve tops : 14

Long sleeve bodysuits : 9

Short sleeve bodysuits : 3

Pants : 17

Shorts : 5

Skirts : 3

Dress, short sleeve : 2

PJ's :
4 long sleeve, long leg
2 short sleeve, long leg; 1 of them with shorts

Sweaters :
1 pullover knit
1 pullover fleece
1 drape

Jackets :
1 light spring outdoors
1 medium outdoors
2 light indoor/outdoor all purpose

Hat : 1 summer, 1 winter

A Birthday Lunch

We visited the inlaws today to celebrate my MIL's birthday (which was last week) by having dim sum lunch at Royal Garden Seafood Restaurant in Newark, CA. It is so much easier to go to restaurants with M now that she is 18 months, sitting in a high chair pretty well (or in a booster, which we tried once at a restaurant which didn't have any highchairs), and can eat most solid foods as long as they're cut up into small enough pieces for her. This is the first time we went out to a restaurant with the inlaws where M could eat the same foods we were eating. Lunch was a blur though, as my attention was on M most of the time while trying to feed her. The restaurant is good for babies/toddlers. Like many Chinese restaurants, they tend to be noisy! I don't know what it is about Chinese people, but they tend to be extra loud. My family is like that. DH's family is like that. We must be weird, DH & I can appreciate peace & quiet...

Funny thing about the bathroom at this restaurant. I walked in and heard something. Thought it was music. No, that wasn't it. Someone was speaking. Thought it might be Chinese, but then I realized that it was the football game (San Diego Chargers vs Baltimore Ravens) that was on TV at the time; they had a TV near the front of the restaurant showing the game (on mute). No baby changing station in the bathroom though...

I really need to work harder on updating my blog more frequently...

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The Illusionist

Would you believe it? I finally saw a movie, The Illusionist ... in a movie theatre! First movie I've seen in over a year and a half. I think the last movie I saw was around Dec(?) 2004 while I was pregnant with my little girl, and it was The Incredibles. How strange to watch a movie without close captioning. We have turned on CC on our home TV because it enabled us to watch TV on mute when our little girl was a newborn. We still have CC enabled out of habit. We've gotten used to it, and it feels weird without it. It's also strange to watch something and not being able to rewind! That's cuz we have Tivo and have gotten used to the pause & rewind features.

We visited the inlaws today. We decided to duck out while they were playing with Marisa; we have to stay out of sight anyways cuz she gets clingy when we're in sight, so the inlaws have more fun with her when we stay out of sight. We were fortunate that the timing worked out for us to catch a movie. We were trying to decide between The Illusionist and The Devil Wears Prada. We went with The Illusionist, going in without really knowing what it was about. But Edward Norton was starring in it and being one of those underrated actors we figure we couldn't go wrong with this movie. We were not disappointed, it was an interesting movie. And it was good to see Paul Giamatti in a different role from the one he played in Sideways.
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Losing my mind, brain cell by brain cell

M has been transitioning from 2 naps/day to 1 nap/day, and even that 1 nap is pretty iffy. I hate to admit this but I have been using the car as a prop to get her to take a nap. That's what I did last week, and it looks like it will continue this week. :-(

So this around 3:15pm today, I decide it's time to take a drive to Ranch 99 in Daly City because I had to pick up some stuff. M had already taken a 30 min nap this morning, purely accidental when I dropped off my mom somewhere this morning, I really did not expect her to nap at that time. Anyways, I wanted M to take a little afternoon nap.... so I take the scenic route to Ranch 99. I take 280 south, then hop onto hwy 1 south, with the intention of getting onto Skyline (hwy 35) which will take me to Ranch 99. M fell had fallen asleep in the car by the time I reached the 280/1 junction, yay! When I reached Skyline, I have no idea why I thought I should take the "south" exit instead of the "north" exit.

As I was on the exit ramp to get onto hwy 35 south, I wondered, howcome there's this big roundabout loop? Well, this isn't a route I take very often (can't remember the last time I went that way) so I wasn't really familiar with how the ramp was supposed to work. So I got onto Skyline and was driving along. Hmmm... the scenery looks a little different. The lanes look a little different. Geez, I guess it has been a LONG time since I last drove on Skyline. Buildings on the right side looked different. Hmm... how come it's taking so long to reach Ranch 99? Then I look over to the left side and see houses! Hmm... don't remember the last time I saw houses in Pacific on the left side. That's odd! Then it hit me. I'm going south, and that's the wrong way!!! Ok, now where can I make a U-turn? I turn into Skyline College to make my turn, and then head back north. I feel so stupid...

I don't know why I thought I should take the hwy 35 south exit. Maybe because I knew I was supposed to drive downhill on Skyline, and I thought downhill=south. I just can't believe I made that mistake. I've definitely lost some brain cells since M was born...

Oh, M managed to nap for 40 minutes. I pulled into the parking lot and knitted while she napped. We did some quick shopping at Ranch 99, then stopped by Sheng Kee Bakery for a treat. She tried the egg custard tart for the first time. She loved it. After we got home, she saw me putting away the Curry Beef Horns and wanted a taste. So we shared one of these. She seemed to like it, although not as enthusiastic about it as the egg custart tart. I remember one of the best places for those egg custard tarts was Golden Gate Bakery on Grant Ave in Chinatown. I haven't gone there in a long time, too much effort to get there.

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Nordstroms Ladies Lounge

I always thought Nordstrom had the best Ladies Lounge for mothers of infants & toddlers. They always have a separate room with chairs and/or sofa, a nice quiet place where one can nurse their baby. And they have nice cushy changing tables which are so much better than the ubiquitous hard plastic ones you find everywhere else. My little girl hates the hard plastic changing tables. I think it's partly because she resists diaper changes, will try to sit up, then flop back down hitting her head against the plastic. So I try to go to a Nordstrom restroom if there is one at the mall.

All the Nordstroms I had been to before had a decent size lounge, and their signature cushy changing table. The Nordstrom in downtown San Francisco is the absolute best. It has a very spacious lounge, and a separate room for nursing where there are two(!) cushy changing tables with a sink between the two. Perfect! Somebody who has had kids must have helped design that one.

Well, a month ago, I discovered that not all Nordstroms are so well equipped. The Nordstrom at the Hillsdale Shopping Center in San Mateo, CA has to be the worst. There is a small 2-seater sofa and a chair crammed into a small closet of a lounge. People are practically tripping over you as they walk past to the main restroom area. I went in search of a changing table and saw none by the sink area. So I assumed there must be one in the big handicap stall at the end. Waited, waited, waited until the person vacated the stall, walked over there and was shocked to find no changing table at all. No changing table anywhere! So I had to go back to the closet lounge and change my little girl on the sofa. Luckily nobody was sitting there. Although the sofa is cushy and my little girl didn't complain, I just can't imagine other people liking the sight of me, or anyone else for that matter, changing their baby's/toddler's diaper on a sofa where many people sit (even though I did place a receiving blanket on top of the sofa before setting down my little girl).

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